It seems I have been stumbling through another writer’s block, again … and I love to write.
I’ve often thought about, and even talked with others about, writing a book. Well, as fate would have it, I am in the initial stages of doing exactly that. Although the book in question is being described as a “micro-book” by the publishing house that approached me, I am very much interested in going forward with this idea (the details of which will be made known at a later date).
I’m looking forward to this project; and, even more so, I’m looking forward to pushing my digital pencil right through my electronic paper and busting up this writer’s block.
8 Responses
8 Comments
Congratulations on the publishing opportunity, Ed. đ Have you considered participating in NaNoWriMo this year? I’m not sure if you’re leaning towards non-fiction or fiction, but the “write a book in a month” challenge is something I’ve heard a lot about from friends. Related: http://www.nanowrimo.org/
@Andy – Thanks! I regularly follow NaNoWriMo and keep saying I will do it; this may be the year, depending on the time commitment for this book. It’s non-fiction and will have an established deadline, whereas if I write for NaNoWriMo it will be fiction, most likely in the fantasy / sci-fi genre … but you never know.
Being approached to write (and complete) a book should help give you some motivation to getting down to writing. Congrats!
My advice for tackling the painful and frustrating blank page is to break big topics down into manageable chunks.
Also, don’t discount the value of simply starting. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve wasted by worrying about writing before actually writing the first sentence. Once I get started, my vague sense of “How am I going to do this?” is replaced with the more manageable questions around how to explain specific things. This usually gets me through.
Good luck, Cais!
@David – Thanks! This post actually started in a very different direction from what ended up being published. The post idea was originally based in the potential play on words of the title … and, as I have done often, I just started writing and let it take me where it would.
I think we’ve all been there at some point, starting a blog post only to see it go in a different direction entirely. Revise, revise, revise! I agree entirely with David’s point about breaking things down, too. I prefer the list + mind map approach, breaking things down into key points and tying them together afterwards. It helped me fly through a lot of last-minute reports and essays in college. đ
@Andy – I use several methods of organizing ideas and thoughts for writing, too: lists, mind maps, Evernote, etc.; for “blogging”, I often start with a “catchy” title and leave it in draft status until the rest of the thoughts / ideas catch up to it. đ
Congrats! How cool is that… đ
@Nancy – Thanks, but it didn’t quite work out as planned although I may still be involved with the process.