A Writer's Tale

“Now, this is just an idea. Let me run it up the flagpole, okay? If you don’t want to salute, fine, but…why not play up the gay aspect? The real reason Huck and Jim take the raft together… ”

And so it might go if you sell your novel on the basis of an outline and sample chapters.

Most editors wish they were writers. They will try to satisfy their frustrated creative urges on the back of your novel.

If they get their hands on a proposal instead of a finished novel, they drool. You’re handing them a chance to pretend they are writers. They now get to participate in the creation of your novel.

If you don’t go along with their “suggestions,” they are in a position to wreck you. Aside from pouting and complaining, they might refuse to accept your finished manuscript.

They can easily ruin any future you might’ve had with their employer.

They can even sabotage you with other publishers. In other words, you’d better go along with the editor’s suggestions or else.

Most editorial interference, however, can be avoided simply by selling your novel on the basis of itself, not on the basis of sample chapters and an outline.

Why outline your novel at all?

If you ask me, don’t do it unless your story is so complex that you need an outline just to coordinate the logistics of it.

On Writers Block

IF YOU’RE FAMILIAR WITH THE QUANTITY OF MY OUTPUT, YOU MAY BE asking yourself whether I know anything at all about a topic like writer’s block.

My output might appear to be evidence that I’ve never suffered from it.

On the other hand, maybe it shows that I’ve found ways to beat it.

Every writer has probably suffered from some degree of writer’s block at one time or another. What is writer’s block? Nothing more, really, than a state of mind that stops a writer’s creative flow.

Symptoms usually include staring at a blank page or computer screen for hours, wanting desperately to write, wracking your mind for ideas or a starting place, but writing nothing.

More severe symptoms might include not even trying avoiding the desk, the computer, the typewriter, the pen, the paper.

The block might continue for hours, for days, for weeks or months or years. No doubt it must last a lifetime for some people.

What is behind this inability to write?

Here are some of the usual suspects.

You might have too many distractions. Distractions can take a Region of forms, from a barking dog to the noise of a television coming from a different room. An interrupting child or pet. An interesting activity going on outside your window.

A talk-radio topic that catches your ear on your office radio.

It is virtually impossible for most people to write if another person is in the room. And many of us need silence.

If distractions are the source of your troubles, try to eliminate them. Find a quiet place to work. A place where nobody will intrude on your privacy. If your home or apartment or dorm is too crowded or busy, go somewhere else. Write in a coffee shop, at the library, on a park bench in the back seat of your parked car.

Go anywhere necessary to get privacy and silence.

If you simply cannot avoid an environment full of distractions, learn to block them out.

But exterior distractions are not always the problem. Often, writer’s block is the result of interior troubles.

You might just be tired. Fiction writing takes a tremendous amount of mental and emotional energy. If you haven’t gotten enough sleep, you may sometimes find yourself gazing blankly at a blank page. The solution? Simple and very effective. Take a nap and try again later.

You might be preoccupied. Troubles with finances, health, relationships, etc. can throw major disturbances into your head.

If your life is full of problems, do what you can to remedy them. If they are beyond remedy, ignore them. At least for the hours each day when you need to write, shut them out. Stick them into the back of your head, then go ahead and concentrate all your attention on writing.

One of the most common mental blocks comes from the What-The-Hell’s-The-Use-Anyway Syndrome. You feel that, no matter what you might do, you’ll never get published. As you see it, there are too many other writers out there, you’re no better than they are, you can’t imagine why anyone would ever bother to notice your work, and you don’t stand a chance of succeeding. So why waste your life trying?

If you’re an unpublished writer, you feel sure that you’ll probably stay that way forever. If you’re published, you might suffer from the syndrome because you feel that no matter what you may write it doesn’t stand a chance of reaching the audience it deserves. You’ll remain a mid-list writer until you fade into oblivion. So why even try?

To deal with this problem I advise saying, “Screw it!”

Then go ahead and write.

Write for yourself. “Write the book you want to write.