My mother used to read all my rambling ideas, short stories, poems, and comic books. She would often say, "you're going to write a book someday." I always appreciated the encouragement but never took it too seriously. 40+ years later she read Heavenly Places: Coram Deo. She reminded me of her words from decades before. Mom is always right!
We live in a world of competing visuals. We have TV, movies, books, video games, social media and so much more thrown at us every moment of every day. Readers do judge a book by its title, cover and summary. You get seconds to convince people that your work is for them. It is daunting!
I'm not sure I have. In the past I have started a project and at some point lost interest in the characters or story and never went back to the project. Author friends have said that is writer's block. If so, then I have. I just always thought of writer's block as something more of an inability to move the story forward. Since starting to write the Heavenly Places I have had no such issue.Â
As far as advice for someone experiencing writer's block, I'd give three pieces of advice;
1. Eliminate distractions. If you keep allow creativity blockers your brain has a hard time staying in the groove.
2. Keep writing. Write anything even if you think it is terrible. This will get the creativity flowing again. Ideas will start popping even later when you think of a better idea than what you wrote.
3. Take a break from the main project and write something else. A poem, a blog entry, and email newsletter, anything. Get your mind back into creative mode.
I would tell young me, "start writing right now!" Even if it was an hour a week, I'd have dozens of books by now. I let doubt hold me back when I should have been taking chances and chasing dreams. Do yourselves a favor, chase your dreams when you are young, and they just might become your reality long before you are my age.
From a young age I had a desire to express myself through written word. I have since written for fun, hobby, and more recently professionally. I started a few novels over the years but somewhere along the way I lost the plot, literally. Some have called it writer's block, but I always considered it writer's ambivalence. I simply lost interest in the characters or the story, so I stopped. It wasn't until the we decided to play a wholesome version of a tabletop roleplaying game with our daughter. In creating the Heavenly Places as a game campaign setting, we inadvertently introduced the characters and plot of the books. The game continues, though the plot has veered wildly from the books at this point. I currently have enough plotted material to write three trilogies. The current trilogy would complete the pre-exile time in Biblical Israel/Judah as it happens on the fantasy world of Aeramor. The second trilogy would cover the exile to Babylon and the return to Jerusalem. The third trilogy would cover the end times.
