Writer’s Block My Experience: I’ve written eight books in seven years. It doesn’t sound like I have writer’s block–but I do.
I’ve been struggling to finish Secret Supers in Space for seven months. That’s the first draft—just 50,000 to 60,000 words. Usually, I get that much done in two to four months.
What’s my big problem?
Writer’s Block My Experience – What Is Writer’s Block?
It means you can’t or have difficulty writing. Duh!
A more official definition is:
Writer’s block—wanting to write and not writing—is a persistent problem that every writer (yes, every writer, even Stephen King) deals with, and one that has ended far too many writing careers.
The first thing I saw in my search
The last book I wrote in this series was Villain’s Vacation:
I got off to a flying start in November, writing for NaNoWriMo, the official National Novel Writing Month organization.
Here’s a chart of my monthly writing, so you can see what my writer’s block looks like:
| Month | Words Written |
| November | 3,973 |
| December | 0 |
| January | 423 |
| February | 0 |
| March | 1517 |
| April | 211 |
| May (so far) | 0 |
Total? 6129 words in 42 hours of writing for 142 words per hour.
Pretty pathetic for a professional author, but I have an excuse: I was finishing two other books: 1) Zombie Detective audiobook (now published)
and 2) my first non-fiction book, The Gospel Medley. Believe it or not, this is at least the 20th round of edits for this book, over the 35 years I’ve worked on it.
So that takes care of December through March. I can’t multi-task. What’s my problem in April and May?
Writer’s Block – the problem of self-publishing
I get easily distracted while writing. First of all, there is research. I’ll write and then need some fact, like “Where are there underground nuclear silos in Kansas?” This question arose for My Undead Mother-in-law.
The same thing happens for Secret Supers in Space. What does the ISS look like? What is the capacity of the Dragon capsule for SpaceX? Where does SpaceX launch from? What is the curriculum for Space Camp? What is the daily agenda?
But that’s not all.
More Distractions
Every publisher and author needs to market your book. That doesn’t mean selling, although that’s what you want to happen. Rather it means telling people who might like your book that your book exists and is worth reading and WHY it’s worth reading.
This is a very important thing to do. You, as an author or publisher should do it every week, if not every day. If people don’t know about your book, they can’t buy it. If people don’t know how much they will enjoy and laugh at my books, why should they buy them?
So I joined Story Origin this year to market my books. That’s absorbed my time, every week, as I promoted my newsletter, books, and other newsletters and books.
I also have maintained Amazon ads, although I’ve cut my expense from $300/month to $50. I found a better way to advertise: through Free Kindle and Discount Books.
The Bottom Line – What Should I Do?
Give me your best and worst suggestions. Everyone who does so will get a free ebook of mine to read and review. Reach out to me any time at my email: [email protected] Or subscribe to my newsletter for all my blog posts and news, as well as free books.
“Zombie Turkeys” chapter icon from Joliet Chapter
Andy Zach, ready to go.
Click on the Zombie Turkeys book cover to read a free excerpt.
Andy Zach in living color, ready to go!