Not Quite Writer's
Block
Being blessed with a vivid imagination, I don't often get the dreadful writer's block. At least not in the traditional sense. I don't stare at a blank screen or sheet of paper with a frozen imagination. I'm not saying what I write will always be good; I scrap a lot of stuff that was only useful in the sense that I was working out that brain muscle. I have different problems that prevent me from writing, excluding the daily struggles life throws at you like a lack of time. Here's my list:
1. Ideas come in the worst places...Pretty much the best and most vivid ideas come to me in the shower, while driving, at meetings or at my child's extracurricular activities, places where it's hard to write them down. I'm slightly relaxed in these situations, sometimes bored, and writing stories in my head helps me focus (a weird ADHD thing). The problem is by the time I get to a place, or have a moment, to write them down, they're gone or at least lost their luster and detail.
2. Too many ideas...This seems like a blessing, but it means I move on from one project to the next, usually working on about four different manuscripts simultaneously. The problem is that only a few of the projects are actually finished before I move on. I have a graveyard of partial manuscripts. The perk in this is if I do have real writer's block, I can completely revamp one of these old scraps.
3. Writing for the love of writing...
This should not be a problem. If I love to write just because it's a passion of mine, I should not care about selling or becoming well-known. I actually don't to a point. Money doesn't mean much since I write because I have to; money feels like a bonus. But I want to share my writing and I want people to know it's mine. I'm proud of it as one is proud of any of his or her accomplishments. I love to write and I even love the revision and editing process (the English Professor in me), but getting my writing out to the public is another story. I abhor researching agents, publishers, and trying to keep track of query letters (currently have three projects I'm writing queries for). I only ever tried aggressively selling one of six completed manuscripts. I probably have about twelve novels because some are series, but haven't done anything with them. This seems a waste, but every time I settle down to work on the publishing aspects, the ideas come instead (like a cycle back to #1 and 2).
There are many obstacles when it comes to writing and querying, so these only highlight the personal struggles I have. What types of writer's block do you go through? I'd love to hear!