Follow That Dream?

Fail-1Several months ago I had a dream. (Hah! I’ll bet you thought I was going to write about the dream of writing, in general.) Nope. This is about a real dream. I actually remember this one vividly – an unusual experience for me as that almost never happens. I knew from the start that this dream had within it the skeleton of a really interesting story, if I could only get it on paper. My last book had been sent on its way and I was ready to begin something new, something different from the trilogy that had occupied the last seven years of my life. Continue reading “Follow That Dream?”

Blocked or Bored?

AC Flory1
AC Flory

The very first article I ever wrote for Indies Unlimited was a tongue-in-cheek look at writer’s block. Sadly, it wasn’t as funny as I would have liked because I don’t really ‘do’ funny. This time around I’m just going to speak from the heart.

“I have had writer’s block for close to a year, and it was horrible.”

Don’t get me wrong, I have written screeds of words this last year – assignments, articles, blog posts etc – but my creative writing has been stalled. Every now and then I’d get a rush of inspiration, but it never lasted more than a day, and then I’d be back, staring at a blinking cursor that would not move. Continue reading “Blocked or Bored?”

Planning to prepare to begin…

keep-calm-and-do-it-tomorrow-38I am writing two books just now. Well, no I’m not, I am brewing two books just now. They are percolating, as it were. Not actually writing them, ever, would be fine if I hadn’t started calling myself a writer but the trouble is, well the trouble is Indies Unlimited.

When I first started reading this pesky blog I had one book to my name, written way back in the mists of time when Author Solutions was the brilliant new alternative to ‘real publishers’. It languished way down at the bottom of the Amazon sales figures and my Mum kinda liked it. I thought of myself as a bit of a diarist, life amused me and I wrote little tales of derring do for entertainment. When blogging was invented I was cock-a-hoop…the interwebs had made a thing just for me. I posted tales here and there with ambitions, nay pretentions to a spot of website writing and ghost blogging.

Then this bloke called Hise put out a call for guest posts in some Facebook group I’d stumbled into. That was the start of the trouble. Three guest posts later and The Big Email came. Would I like to be an IU staff writer? Would I? You bet! That made me a real writer. Continue reading “Planning to prepare to begin…”

The Blank Page

Here we are again at monthly post time and, as per usual, I am looking at a blank page the day before my article is due. It’s not that I deliberately wait until the eleventh hour to start my piece; occasionally I do get the germ of an idea sometime during the preceding month, that develops unconsciously, and by the time I sit down to actually write the post it virtually writes itself; but not this time.

It’s not unusual for me to write an article without previously having any idea of what I’m going to write; inevitably inspiration strikes and I’m off and running. This time however I’ve drawn a complete blank, no inspiration, nothing, and that is unusual. Is this what’s meant by ‘writer’s block’?!?! So where to from here??? I’ve never been here before, new territory, and I must admit I am finding it more than a little disconcerting… Continue reading “The Blank Page”