Blocks of Block

Writer’s Block & Coping

When I started working on my first completed novel, Fractured, I was ecstatic.  I was all revved up and ready to go.  I had a story to tell.  I had two main characters, a villain, and a plotline.  I even knew the ending.  Everything in between was a mystery to me.  I was a Pantzer, and I knew what I was doing.  Of course, I had never finished a novel.  I still have approximately 5 novels in the works: A World of Change; Enchanted Changes; Less Than a Man; Deadeyes; and Scarlett’s.  My world was about to change with Fractured, which at the time was entitled, The Rescue.  I was going to be on fire.  My characters were going to lead the way; I was going to write their story; it was going to be a breeze.

Okay, let me stop right there because nothing happened the way I expected.

I wasn’t going to be the writer that took two years to finish my novel.  I wasn’t going to be the novelist who set a deadline for myself and miss it multiple times.  I wasn’t going to over write.  It was going to be beautiful, and who me, never will I have to edit my novel.

Yeah! Right!  Let me just cut into the dreamscape here for a moment.  My name is reality, and I happened to Clennell Anthony, the author with all the big ideals.

Yep, that’s what reality should have done to me at the beginning of Fractured.  Reality should have slapped me upside the head, as I began with a vengeance and three months later, I slowed down because I had no idea where the next scene would lead.  I had no idea what I was going to do next.  My characters had me by the neck collar, and they so politely shook me on occasion to write their story.  But their story didn’t fit my plot.  And then there were those Blocks of Block.  Let me just say that if you are a writer, then you have probably experienced what I’m talking about.  I am not the only one.  I simply can’t be, and if I am, I’m going to just have to explain what the hell I’m talking about.

First, I’d like to explain the three types of writers that I know about.  There are three types of writers out there.  There are Pantzers, Planners, and Plantzers.

Pantzer – is a writer who writes by the seat of his/her pants.  She does not use an outline or much of any planning materials.

Planner – these are the writers who take their outlines to the enth degree.  These writers probably have a plan for every portion of their book.  They have outlined everything from their characters to the last scene of their novel before starting to write.

Plantzer – These writers are more likely to have a loose plan or even a full sketched out novel outline, but they tend to write through and around their outline.  They write what feels good and then figure out where it fits into the story or they update their outline to fit what they’ve written, but they are not strictly married to the outline.  Some Plantzers only do very simple and small notes, but these writers are more likely to write by the seat of their pants with a loos outline.

Now, that I’ve explained this to you if you didn’t know this already, now you can see how I got myself into trouble.  As a Pantzer I wrote myself into corners.  I would get stuck and be working out the scenes and ideas in my head.  Ugh, I wouldn’t be able to write on my novel for weeks at a time.  Oh, I’d write a poem here and a short story there, but work on my novel, no way.  This is the same writer who proclaimed that she’d be finished in 6 months and that she wouldn’t’ have any breaks.  Again, yeah right!

So, there were ways that I coped with these blocks of block.  First, I will say that I used both healthy and unhealthy coping methods.  There were times that I would fall into depressions and complain like a toddler. “I can’t write,” I would wine as if I were two instead of forty-two.  Then, I would find something else to write.  I love prose and poetry.  It took my mind off the issue of being blocked when I wrote a poem or a short piece of prose.  Sometimes, I’d find a great writing prompt and write a short story.  An idea would come to me and I’d write the idea down if I couldn’t find my way to write it at the moment.

Often, when people hear about block and writing in the same sentence, they automatically think that the writer is incapable of writing at all.  This is not always the case.  Majority of the time, we can write a good letter, a friendly or funny story, a deep, dark, and winding piece of prose, but the story that we want to write, nope.

So, I did a lot of writing emails to my writing sister, Victoria, who encouraged me to keep going and that I’d be able to write again soon.  She often reminded me that this had happened before.  I called my best friend in Georgia and griped and vented.  I read good books and laughed, cried, or tried to figure out the mystery; while attempting to figure out the scene in my head.  Then, one day I’d sit at the computer, read over my last scene, and it would come to me like manna from heaven.  There in the midst of my crazy despair came my own brand of fish and loaves of bread to feed the feast of my soul.  And I nourished my novel with a meal filled with words, sentences, and paragraphs.

Eventually, two years later, I had a completed manuscript that I had to edit, and I’m still having to edit, but I finished.  It was my first completed novel.  I was ecstatic all over again.  It felt as if I’d accomplished something no one else had in the creation of man.  Then, I came back down to Earth from my cloud on level nine.  I started editing and was again ecstatic to be starting another part of the process.

When I finished Fractured, I promised myself that I’d never write another book without an outline, and I meant it.  Now, I’m working on The Cursed.  I have character outlines and a full-fledged outline of my novel.  I used the Hero’s Journey outline format for this book, but for my next book, I’ll be using Joseph Sale’s Five Act Structure Master Class that’s on the Writers’ Mastermind website.  With my new Plantzer persona, I am rarely at a loss for something on my novel to write.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I’m not tempting fate telling you this, but I have to say that it works loads better for me than Pantzing.  It’s a mystery to me why this is, but I think I’m just finding my groove and finding my zone.  Now, that I’ve learned to work within my voice and love my craft; I’m finding my way of being within it.

So, I say to you writer.  Whatever kind of writer you are, “be you.”  Find your voice.  Learn your way of being, and go for it.  there is a niche for you.  No matter what your niche is or your way of doing things; you’re still a writer and you can do it.  Just remember to do it your way!

Happy writing! & Keep creating!

CSA

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