Writing Difficulties

So, despite starting Halls of Power on Monday, I’d been having a hard time writing it. I’ll admit that part of it has been my wife being out of work. That’s stressful, and her being in the same room… well, let’s just say that there’s a reason why I tended to get most of my writing done during the week. Any distractions can shut me down. But even that wasn’t explaining all of it. That’s when I realized what the problem was.

When I started Spells of Old, I had written up about a 2 page outline of what I wanted to happen, in approximately what order. I didn’t do that for Halls of Power. This meant that I was somewhat floundering about in the beginning, and that isn’t good. So today I wrote up an outline for Halls of Power. Hopefully it’ll help me get in the mood, but I’m probably going to pause on writing for a couple of days to let things settle down. Also, due to the fact there’s going to be a war in Halls of Power, it isn’t going to be quite as focused on Phynis and Sistina as I’d prefer. Just a bit of warning there.

In other news, the audiobook of Ancient Ruins has finished the first quality control pass and once corrections have been made, they’ll enter post-production. I can’t be certain, but it very well may come out at about the same time as Spells of Old. Even better, the producer is also interested in doing an audiobook for Spells of Old, so I’ll likely get that started before actual release! This should speed up how quickly it comes out after the book this time around.

7 thoughts on “Writing Difficulties”

Well you can try doing what I always do when I’m in a slump on a research project. Read a good book (As fantastical and different from reality as possible), go for a jog (I know how horrifying it is, I am not a fan either but it does wonders for clearing your mind) and go nature watching for a bit (Find a pond, river, mountain, or forest within
15-minute driving distance where you can be absolutely alone).

Trust me, it works 100%.

Also, first lesson of college is everything longer than 5-6 pages needs a detailed outline. Helps immensely, I am surprised you even tried without one.

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I don’t jog, but I take half-mile walks. As for books… well, I’ll let people know when I find another that spikes my ‘awesome’-meter. I’ve had trouble getting through sample chapters lately, so don’t have that. My wife and I went to a nature park for lunch yesterday, too.

Also, Ancient Ruins was done without an outline. In all honesty, I keep all the details of what I have planned in my head. My outlines are just a sketch of the timeline and approximate interplay of plots… not quite a flowchart. Trying to stick to a detailed outline doesn’t work for me because to me each character is a person. They do things that feel right to them, which sometimes contradict what I had intended for the plot. And I roll with that. I’ve already run into one situation like this in Halls of Power. But I know I’m weird, as my wife often looks at me in surprise as I rattle off trivia from a D&D game I ran 10 years ago.

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Given you’ve hammered out two novels of good length in, what, a year? I think you’re entitle to slow down somewhat rather than trying to rush out the conclusion. I mean, yeah, new book sooner is always good, but I’d rather wait another year and get a book you’re happy with than wait a few months and get something you essentially forced yourself to finish. If that means you stop writing for a few days, or a few weeks even, to find your mojo again, then that’s what it takes.

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*does math* 6 months, actually. *pauses* Okay, that’s a lot faster than I thought I’d put them out. My big thing is not losing the thread of inspiration that let me get them started.

Might do a side story about one of the characters, though…

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