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The Dreaded Writer’s Block: Definitions and Strategies
Narration provided by Wondervox
By Mark McNease
I’ve always had a stubborn refusal to admit experiencing this dreaded thing called writer’s block. I worry that confessing to it reveals a certain creative weakness, even though I know that’s not the case at all. It sounds too much like a wall, or some obstacle I can’t overcome. I’ve preferred to use words like “stuck” to refer to the state I find myself in when I can’t get past the next plot point, or figure out where to take a story, or what the central building blocks are of something I’m writing.
At the same time, when I take out my trusty egg timer, set it to 45 minutes and start typing, something always comes out. It could be the outline of a next chapter, or story notes, or even working on a character biography in an attempt to understand why someone is killed in service to the story, and who killed them! Lately that’s been one of my biggest problems: until the last couple of books I always knew who the killer was and why the murder was committed. Now I find myself repeatedly stuck. But is this a self-fulfilling prophecy? Am I unable to move forward because I tell myself I can’t? And how do I get out of it? Let’s take a look at this thing called writer’s block, this goblin, this bogeyperson who always seems to be lurking in the doorway waiting to keep us from walking through.
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Your Write Path Podcast: A Conversation with Ann Aptaker, Award Winning Author of the Cantor Gold Series
Fasten your headphones for another MWA-NY member interview. Ann Aptaker is the author of the Cantor Gold series, featuring the irrepressible Cantor Gold, art smuggler and rebel living on the edges in late-1940s New York City. The series currently includes Criminal Gold, Tarnished Gold, Genuine Gold, Flesh and Gold, and Murder and Gold.
Ann is a Lambda Literary Award (The Lammy) and multiple Goldie Award winner for her popular novels. A native New Yorker, she has earned a reputation as a respected exhibition designer and curator of art during her career in museums and galleries. Exhibitions Ann has curated have garnered favorable reviews in the New York Times, Art in America, American Art Review, and other publications.
Her short stories and essays have appeared in several major anthologies and in other crime and mystery fiction publications and journals. In addition to curating and designing art exhibitions and writing crime stories, Ann is also an art writer and was adjunct professor of art history at the New York Institute of Technology.
I had the pleasure of finally meeting Ann at the MWA-NY annual Holiday Revels gathering in New York City this past December, and I couldn’t wait to speak to her again for this interview.
Are you a MWA-NY member? Would you be interested in an interview for this feature? Contact interviews AT mwany.org for information. – Mark McNease/Comms Team
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Your Write Path Workshop Schedule Through November
