Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I have been writing full time for five years. Not such a long time,but life has a way of sidelining you. I raised four children,divorced or was divorced by three husbands,retired from my job of thirty years as a hospice nurse after work related injuries and decided to write full-time. I naively thought if you sat down and the words flowed, without writers block, and you told a pretty good story ,that was enough. I joined RWA,FTHRW,Romance Divas and several other online chapters eager to talk with other writers. Writing is a very lonely profession at time. Many think it's a nice little hobby,others think anyone can write, Most think anyone can write a book.I suppose they can,but I doubt it will be a really good story.Who knew there was story structure,plotting,character arcs,back story vs no back story. Acts 1,2 and 3.Conflict,resolution,goals,etc. etc. OH MY! My fist foray into contests was a disaster and I didn't write again for a week.The judges screamed,unsympathetic,abusive hero and heroine. No voice. Too many grammatical errors.Had to force themselves to keep reading the twenty pages. Awful was the general consensus and I receives a score of 7.5 out of the highest score of 10.Didn't seem like such a low score for a manuscript they considered awful. Rejections and un-published works far exceed published well received manuscripts. So why would anyone choose to be a writer. Oh my. Writing chooses you. A write can't not write, to quote the person who first coined the phrase. So here I am procrastinating instead od working on the third revision of my latest novel. My muses are on vacation in the Bahamas,Fuji or Guam, leaving me to trudge through the absence of a clearly defined goal for my heroine and not enough conflict for my H&H in the second chapter. Sigh.Maybe I'll take that trip to Ireland soon and find a new muse. Yeah right! As soon as I make my first million with my latest novel. The one still sitting in the drawer of my desk waiting for it's third revision while I type away here. No,I don't have writer's block and never have. I do,however, procrastinate with a proficiency that amazes me. Yes I know, grammatical errors abound,even in this pontification.

Hello, Epcaldwell. I was going to procrastinate today, but I put it off until tomorrow.
I do have a suggestion. Paragraphs! Useful, unless your real name is Gabriel Garcia Marques.
Welcome to the Forums!

Yes, that happens to me all the time! It's happening to me right now. I have not written a new word in weeks. All I do is outline or edit small chunks. You're right: a writer can't not write, but lately I haven't been feeling like much of a writer I guess. I need to get out of this rut...

Personally, I don't think of writing as being only time spent at the keyboard. If you think like a writer, you're writing every minute, because you're taking in information to use later. Whether it's a facial expression, someone else's words, the way the garage door sounds when it closes and you realize it should probably be oiled--gathering those things in your brain and turning them over until they make sense and make a story or part of a story. I find daydreaming to be a very valuable writing tool but some people would call that procrastination.

I don't think you have writer's block or are procrastinating, I think today might not be your day. After all, being a writer is a very up and down sort of thing. So, don't be hard on yourself if you aren't putting huge amounts of words on the page. As long as your brain is on, you're working.

Tanks karenbb! I think about my stories practically 24/7. I pretty much think in sentences for my novel. And character development is the big one. It's just the getting the words down on the page that is difficult for me.