Writing

The dreaded writer’s blocks

No, this isn’t about my effort or lack thereof during National Novel Writing Month (that will be another post), this is about a quote from an overview of various writing programs:

This program focuses on productivity, allowing you to successfully avoid the dreaded writer’s blocks.

First, I want to know, who is this dreaded writer?

Second, what’s up with his/her/their blocks? I understand wanting to avoid them–blocks sound like they could hurt–but what are they? What are they made of? Where do they come from? Can I get some and also become a dreaded writer?

Bonus observation: Why do so many pages covering writing apps have such poor writing? Is it meant to be ironic? Have the authors of these pieces suffered from too many of the dreaded writer’s blocks?

National Novel Writing Month 2021 Update #2: In which a tumbleweed is spotted

A visual representation of my effort so far this month:

Sass by Laramie Briscoe — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs ...

I’d like to say I’ve been busy with other things, and that is true, to a degree. I’ve also been horribly distracted by stuff outside my control. I’m willing to still give this a go two weeks late, so come Monday I’ll provide Update #3, which will tell the tale of whether I actually wrote something. It could happen!

To NaNoWriMo or not NaNoWriMo (2021)

About a month ago I wondered if I would do Inktober this year and voilà! I did a drawing on the first day.

I then did no further drawings, going 1/31.

I skipped National Novel Writing Month last year and didn’t regret the decision. My circumstances are different this year, and I’ve been mulling over whether to take part.

I’m still not sure, with mere hours before it officially begins.

What I do know is that if I do take part, it will be as a full-on pantser, perhaps even a full-on pants-on-head.

I have made a few decisions if I do participate:

  • I won’t continue a previous story
  • I won’t rework a previous story
  • In other words, this will be something 100% new
  • Probably something spooky or weird

But really, there’s a good chance I won’t actually do it. I like the idea of plunging in completely unprepared, though. It adds a certain zest.

Tomorrow I’ll update (for real) with either my announced project, an excuse for why it isn’t quite announced yet, or an admission that it ain’t gonna happen.

I started a newsletter

No, I don’t know why. But I can explain how I got here:

  1. I decided I wanted to move away from Gmail for [reasons]
  2. I began searching for other email services
  3. I initially settled on Outlook.com because I already had a subscription to Office Microsoft 365, anyway
  4. Outlook.com is mostly fine but doesn’t really do anything new with email, and the UI is bland and boring. I began looking again.
  5. I settled on trying out HEY email. Yes, they like you to spell it all shouty like that. HEY got me a new email address and I like the way it looks. It does a few things differently and while I’m not yet convinced I’ll stay with it long term, it’s a fine second email service for me to play around with.
  6. HEY offers something called HEY World, which lets you write an email that gets posted to your own custom mini-blog. Mine is here: https://world.hey.com/stan.james
  7. Two friends humored me and subscribed, but the whole thing is pretty basic. But it gave me a taste of something different, and eventually I wanted more.
  8. Today is also the day that Austin Kleon moved his weekly newsletter to Substack. I read several other Substack-hosted newsletters and began mulling moving my random thoughts from HEY World to Substack, where I can experiment and be weird on the internet.

Which brings me to my Substack newsletter, cleverly titled Stan’s Random Newsletter. You can see it here: https://stanjames.substack.com/ (I also have a handy link on the right sidebar of this blog.)

Can I just keep posting random nonsense here on my blog? Yes! Will I continue doing so? Yes! So why use Substack? Because there’s something about a newsletter that’s different, even if it’s simply the convenience of sending the random thoughts directly to someone via email. If they like the random thoughts, they can get more without doing anything. No websites to remember, no fuss, no muss (what is muss, anyway?)

I have no idea how long I’ll keep this up or what will come of it, but I’ll play around with it for a while and see where it goes. I’ll start by padding it out with some of my HEY World posts, because a smart author knows how to utilize existing resources. Or something.

My unfinished classic childhood novel no longer needs to be finished

Because someone has already written it, minus the plural. The only thing I missed was the local town corruption–but maybe I was too young and naive to imagine hearty mountain folk being bad.

For reference, here is a post that contains the unedited and glorious text of my original version: CLAWS: The Complete and Uncut Edition

Book review: The Successful Author Mindset

The Successful Author Mindset: A Handbook for Surviving the Writer’s Journey by Joanna Penn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Joanna Penn’s short book is exactly what it says–a look at how to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally to live the life of a writer, through new writer tribulations, on to actual publication and then dealing with what comes after (should you be so fortunate).

As such, there is little in here about how to write, but plenty of advice on how to deal with everything from self-doubt to overzealous fans, using a Problem/Antidote format. Penn’s style (seriously, a writer named Penn? The closest I get is someone calling me “pencil neck”) is open and friendly, and she provides excerpts from her private journal to illustrate points she is making, which is a nice way of building trust with the reader. The advice is practical and pretty common sense–you’re unlikely to slap your forehead and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” but it’s still handy to have all of these ideas collected together and presented in a way that’s easy and entertaining to absorb.

It’s also just a nice change-up to read a book about writing that is not about, well, the actual writing part.

Recommended for new writers or those on the cusp of publishing.

View all my reviews

Secret entry

Dear Diary,

Why is it I sometimes freeze when it comes to writing, even on this blog where I have repeatedly demonstrated I have no issue sharing half-baked thoughts, ill-formed ideas and otherwise questionable content. Is it because I know the internet can supply me with an endless stream of cat gifs to substitute for that content?

I think that’s it, actually. I don’t have a solution for this, only a vow to try harder the next time the freeze happens, and to resist posting cat gifs in place of my own words, doodlings or videos of interpretive dance.

Sincerely,

Me

P.S. That said, here’s one more cat gif because why the hell not at this point: