Hello,

Sometimes it gets hard to write, the words will not flow, my story seems too hackneyed at best and uninteresting at worst and I have to ask myself why am I doing this? It happens to all writers once in a while. I have three ways to get out of this mindset that doesn’t plague me too often thank goodness. The first and best cure to getting myself out of the rut is to read the work of author’s I love. I just finished The Cloud of Unknowing by Thomas H. Cook and working on The March by E.L. Doctorow. Both novels are terrific and the writers make it look so easy and because they can it expires me to keep working on my project in an effort to someday get to where they are in their writing abilities: to get the reader to fall into the story and become entangled with it to their joy. And the only—only—way to do it is to write.

To keep writing is my second cure to the writing blues, just write. It can begin as bad stuff but as I go along a few good lines I can use end up on the page and even sometimes a couple of great ones form and really get me going. I just have to sweat through it and keep writing.

My last cure all for those impossible times is the dream I carry of writing a novel other people will love. We all have to work to make our dreams come true right? And the only way to get my novel out to the world is to write it, no way around it, so the blues, writer’s block, self-pity, lack of confidence, fear, whatever we want to call it; when it gets in the way (try and not let it) but when it does, try my cure alls and I promise you’ll feel much better and have your completed great novel to prove it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please e-mail me at my new address: shabazzl@adasbcc.org.

Until next time, God willing,