Many writers—newbies, early wannabees, flash-ins before they flash out—many of these writers never reach the mature writer’s self-analysis stage.

• These writers don’t learn to seek new methods when the story won’t flow.
• They don’t seek solutions to plot conundrums and character rebellions.
• They don’t analyze their writing blocks and seek ways around or over or under or through that writer’s block.

Some mature writers don’t do this, either. They stop and wait. For what? Inspiration? The spark of the start of the way out? They should be scaling the problem or dodging it with another project or tunneling to discover a deeper issue with the story or blasting through the Block with fire and passion for writing.

We don’t want to confront Writer’s Block. We shrink away, frightened by its lingering. The great unmentioned unmentionable seeks to rule us—will we let it?

Not if we have sense. Not if we have a juggernaut of ideas barreling into us, desperate to be released into stories.

Newbie or Mature writer, we do stumble into problems. And then we seek advice from other storytellers.

Let’s look at advice from another Storyteller who is also a Story Teacher.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Introduction
• 02:10 Wilhelm’s Background
• 03:04 Disruptions
• 08:00 Imposter Syndrome
• 14:22 Slump vs. Block
• 18:20 Silent Partner
• 23:03 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time :: 25:09

SOURCE

Wilhelm, Kate. Storyteller. Northampton, MA: Small Beer Press, 2005. info@smallbeerpress.com

Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/04/defeat-writers-block-kate-wilhelm.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

A funny thing happened on the way through entertainment this past weekend. I read Mary Stewart’s The Stormy Petrel. That’s not the funny thing.

Mary Stewart is my all-time favorite author. Wonderful character development, intriguing plots, lovely lyrical writing. She’s a guaranteed satisfying entertainment. My favorite novel of hers is My Brother Michael with The Moonspinners as a close second. (If you’ve seen the film, you haven’t met Stewart’s story.)

I read The Stormy Petrel years ago. The story didn’t stick then: IDK the reason. I usually reach for something else when I want a delicious read. This past weekend was different.

And now we’re to the funny thing, for the protagonist Rose is a writer. Stewart included several revealing passages about the writer’s life including—get this—writer’s block.

Let’s examine what Stewart has to say.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Introduction
• 02:25 Spark the Start
• 05:12 Revive the Memory of Story
• 07:40 Deep into Flow
• 10:20 Finish that Bit; Don’t just Stop
• 11:17 Unfolding Inspiration
• 13:40 Many Projects
• 18:00 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time:: 20:07

SOURCE

Stewart, Mary. The Stormy Petrel. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991. https://www.amazon.com/Stormy-Petrel-Mary-Stewart-ebook/dp/B00GVFUEGS

Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/04/defeat-writers-block-m-stewart-on.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

When we’re browsing for information to help our own particular problems, we reach for the weighty titles, the ones that analyze to the nth degree and provide six or seven or thirteen examples. That kind of information scan would miss Judy Delton’s surprisingly valuable little guidebook The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.

My own bookshelf, physical and electronic, is scant on information about Writer’s Block. That doesn’t mean I haven’t suffered from it, the way many writers have.

Most of my earlier years when I plunged into Writer’s Block, I denied that I had it. It was the great “unmentioned unmentionable” such as Erle Stanley Gardner must have faced. … I, too, have looked for processes to spin out a plot or delve into characters. I haven’t gone as far as to create a 15-page outline or 7 Plot Wheels. Nor have I looked for a variety of information on Writer’s Block and how to overcome it.

I’ve simply prayed for the opportunities when my writing flows out so easily and hoped, after a stoppage, that I can return to that flowing. I have learned that writing every day prevents Writer’s Block.

If we don’t admit to Writer’s Block, can we overcome it? Most of us think we can, simply by ignoring it, keeping it unmentioned and unacknowledged … at least, that’s what we think.

The real, actual, only thing that we can do to Defeat Writer’s Block is act upon our Will to Write.

I’m not certain that Judy Delton’s little guidebook can be found. It’s not from a major publisher although Writer’s Digest Books is certainly well-known. An internet search turns up cached pages offering the book at used book dealers like Thrift Books and ebay, but the first two that I clicked only catalogued the book; it wasn’t in stock.

Anyway, on to part 2 of “Avoid These Mistakes” when attempting to find the impetus to Defeat Writer’s Block.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Introduction
• 03:05 Delton’s 5th Mistake to Avoid
• 07:25 Her 21st Mistake to Avoid
• 11:07 Bridge thru Guidebook / More Advice than on Writer’s Block
• 17:05 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time :: 19:23

LINKS

Delton, Judy. The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. Writer’s Digest Books, 1985.

Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/04/defeat-writers-block-avoid-these.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)