I found an interesting article written about perhaps the greatest fiction writer of all time, Ray Bradbury. He said that if you have writer’s block then you are going in the wrong direction. He further stated that a good story should just flow in a logical manner.
That struck me, because when I do reach that wall that all authors do from time to time, if I stop and think about my character and ask myself, if I was that person where would I want to go, sometimes I can get back on track. But, that does not always work for me. If you have written as many books as I have, somewhere north of 50 at last count, you probably have almost as many unfinished stories as you have finished ones.
Most of the books that I have published (almost all of them under a pen name to protect my relatives) are books that have been lying in wait in the junkyard of unfinished novels. I have gone back and looked at them again and deciphered where I have gone wrong and rewritten much of them to get my characters back on the beaten path.
For me my characters are not just words on a page. They are my friends, people that I care deeply about and want the very best for them. And while they don’t always have happy endings, the vast majority of us do not, I try to make the journey exciting for them and for my readers.
Take Will Anderson, for an example. Will lives for me as much or more than most people that I have met in real life. From the time that he walks into that bar, in “The Stranger” later renamed “The Devil, the Ghost and Will Anderson, because another author had come with a book also called “The Stranger”, Will became someone that I wanted to know better.
And when that book ended and the logical conclusion of Will’s Life ended with it, I had to resurrect him for a second life in “I Wish I Was a Cowboy”. If you read that book and do not fall in love with Mandy you are lacking a heart.
My point is for you authors that are struggling with writer’s block, get better acquainted with your characters. Get to know them so well, that you can walk in their shoes. When you do that, you will know which road to take.
Keep writing and God Bless.
musingsofababyboomer 