Gotta admit last night’s writing session bordered on failure. To be clear, I wrote, thus fulfilling the letter of the “Write Every Day” New Year’s Eve resolution. Not quite sure if the spirit of the resolution felt satisfied, however.

I feel like Bilbo Baggins when he yells out, “Time! Time!” while playing riddles with Gollum. I need more time.

I also need the ideas to flow faster than they are. The muse ain’t talkin’ much on this one. I think I’ve figured out why:

The ideas start flowing when you are in the zone. because of the nature of how my time has been laid out these past couple of weeks, I haven’t had a lot of time to get in the writing zone. I did a post about being in the zone back on January 3rd, which details some of the reasons writers need “the zone.” I don’t just need time. I need big chunks of time.

I’m dealing with concepts that are new to me. I’ve never written about witches and magic. The good thing is, nothing I write will be cliched. Trust me, this stuff is original because I feel like Indiana Jones. I’m just making it up as I go along. In fact, I don’t want to be cliched. This is all make-believe, and I don’t want to make it look as though I am poking fun at or attacking anyone’s religion. I also have a character who can’t use magic trying to fight those who can, and that’s not as easy as it sounds, even with weapons…

I’m afraid no one will like it. New genre. New series. I have no idea if I’m doing it right and I don’t have series popularity to fall back on. Granted, I should just plow in through, but that little nagging doubt doesn’t seems to ever leave no matter how many books and short stories you’ve published.

My promise to myself and to you is that I will tackle the root of these issues and start being productive.

What about you? What keeps you stymied in your writing and how did you get out of it?

Toodles!