Kate Flora: I have always insisted that I don’t suffer from writer’s block. Indeed, I often
think that writer’s block is more of an excuse not to engage with the work, wrestle with the challenges, and find a way forward, than a genuine dilemma. But that’s for me. I understand that some people truly do get blocked. I do, however, believe in story block, in those stories that sometimes refuse to be written. Usually there’s a way around this. Taking a walk, baking, cleaning out a closet, setting myself a difficult task in the garden. Anything, in short, that creates a break from staring at the screen and agonizing over what comes next. Frequently, when I’m done and return to the desk, I’ve found my way forward.
Not this time.
I expect this is a problem that the compulsive outliner does not suffer from, but I’m not sure.
Sometimes the path forward looks like this
Right now, I am 63K words into a book that will not flow. The kind of story that requires many of the words, paragraphs, and scenes to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to the page and forced to stay there. It’s odd, because I’m interested in the book. I want the story to go forward and I need to know what’s finally going to happen to solve the mystery of who killed Leo Furstenberg and whether it was the same person who later killed Elliot England, the headmaster of the prestigious Grimley School.
I’ve tried the usual tricks I described above, but how much blueberry cake can we eat? How many paths can I carve through the jungle of my garden? How many contemplative walks can I take? I’m reduced to reading illustrated cookbooks as the usual last resort dive into fiction isn’t working.
Years ago, I devised a method for outlining a book when you’re a writer who hates outlining, perhaps someone traumatized by having had to do too much of it in school. It’s having a conversation with yourself in which the questions and answers lead to a form of outline that may also lead to successfully finishing the book. The conversation usually begins with asking these questions:
What is this book about?
Who is this book about?
Who else needs to be in the book, and why?
Who was killed and what do we know about the crime scene?
How is that information going to be revealed, and by whom?
Who wanted that person dead and why? And what do we know about them, their character, their whereabouts, their motive, their opportunity to commit the crime?
Which of those people is the actual killer?
What are going to be the obstacles that keep the protagonist/detective from reaching a solution?
How will the protagonist overcome those obstacles and what strengths and abilities does he or she have that will let them solve the crime?
Will there be danger and how will it be overcome?
And then, once this form of outline is created (and it can be created at any point in the writing process) will it impel the writing forward?
Oh dear. Are writers supposed to give away our secrets? Are we allowed to confess to getting stuck or other weaknesses?
Fingers crossed that by writing this for MCW readers, I may have helped myself over the hump.
Do you have tricks or techniques to keep the books moving forward?
Don’t forget to visit me and Maureen Milliken at the Maine Book Fest this coming Saturday and Sunday in Waterville. There’s nothing like a park filled with writers.
Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson: Since I started Indie publishing my Kathy Lynn Emerson backlist titles in 2020, I’ve managed to make almost all of them available in both e-book and print-on-demand trade paperback formats, but there has been one big (and I do mean big) exception. Because it runs to 2556 pages, my A Who’s Who of Tudor Women (over 2300 mini-biographies of women who lived in England during the years 1485-1603) has only been available as an e-book. Early on, I started receiving requests for a print version, but not only would it have to be very expensive, it would also have to be in 2-3 parts because there is a limit on the number of pages in a POD paperback. I also hesitated because I knew I’d have to proofread the whole thing (again!) to catch any remaining typos in the current version and to make a couple of corrections—I have had some wonderful e-mail exchanges with people researching their family histories and/or writing their own books about the period, both fiction and nonfiction. Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, my fall and winter project is a careful proofread of the current text, followed by a corrected e-book edition and a (probably) three-volume POD edition. It will still be expensive, at around $22 for each volume, but at least it will be available. Since the e-book version has been my Indie bestseller, I have hopes that at least a few will sell. This, by the way, is the upside of being semi-retired. I can take my time and do it right, and it won’t cost me anything except time because I self-publish through Draft2Digital and they don’t charge for set-up. Win-Win, right?
I have a goal to set up guest visits on at least two podcasts this year, and I bought a tripod for my phone and will be offering up short readings for my YouTube channel. I plan to do these readings in various outdoor locations that might be unusual: half buried in leaf pile for example. Am feeling like I have not been visible enough, hence this ambitious list.
a little cooler at night, a little darker in the morning. Those flashes of heat and humidity a little less fierce, a little more promise of fall.
after a lawn-mowing session, a cup of coffee on the sun porch before the neighbors wake up. These are small things to treasure against what we know is coming. August is about taking a breath.
and eat corn and peaches until I can’t. The upward climb starts again soon enough. I hope you have found your August and blessed yourself with it. We will need its memory soon enough.
andy’s second Mystery in Maine 
