Read Around the Rainbow | Writer’s Block

It’s Read Around the Rainbow time!!! I can’t believe it’s been another month already. On the last Friday of every month, we’re a group of authors who get together and blog around the same topic. This month’s topic is Writer’s Block.

I know this is something some struggle a lot with, but I don’t. I write most days of the month. My alarm goes off at 05:40 every morning, no matter what day it is. I get up, put on coffee, fix something to eat, bring my coffee to my desk, scroll through my emails and some social media, and unless I have edits to deal with, I write.

Do I wake up feeling like writing every day? Nope. Do I do it anyway? Yes.

And I know it sounds as if I don’t take writer’s block seriously, that I’m being ableist, and maybe I am, but it’s because I don’t have writer’s block. I’m not saying writer’s block isn’t a thing, because I know it is, but I’ve never had it, not to the degree that I’ve been unable to write anything at least.

Sometimes I get lost in my head. Yes, I know it’s sort of the job, but I find expectations crippling. It’s the reason I struggle with writing series. I often start writing a story, thinking it’ll be a standalone story, then I fall in love with a secondary character and want to write their story. I often do, and then I’m standing there with a two-book series, and people expect a third. That’s when I freeze.

But it’s never to the extent that I can’t write another story, stand-alone or in another series. And then I’m angry with myself for not finishing what I started and build on the reluctance to continue the series by putting pressure on myself. And on and on it goes in a lovely little spiral.

I don’t call it writer’s block, though, because all the while I’m writing. I might not be writing the story I ‘should’ be writing, but I’m publishing a story a month (as Holly Day). I write 2k a day apart from the days when I’m doing edits or proofreads. I sneak in the occasional admin day too, but, as a general, I write every morning between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. Then I go for a walk with the dog, fix some lunch, have some more coffee, and get back to my desk for a couple more hours until the kids get home from school.

Routine. I think routine is key. I treat my writing like I would any other job.

That being said, depression is real, as is performance anxiety, but at risk of pissing some people off, I don’t have time to wait for my muse to be cooperative. I have deadlines every month.

Check out what the others have to say!

Nell Iris

Ellie Thomas

Addison Albright