Blocking a Writer

I don't understand that concept of writer's block.

Okay, I understand it in theory. It's supposed to be a block of time where a writer can't really work on the book they have in front of them. Ideas don't come, words don't flow, that sort of thing.

I wish I had this problem.

"What?" you ask. "Declan, what do you mean you wish you had that problem?"

There's a reason that Sad Puppies Bite Back turned into a book. Every time someone suggested something, there was suddenly a new entry. There was at least one entry that was suggested by someone making an offhand comment.

Right now, someone noted a typo in a line of "Why haven't they made a movie on us yet?"

Now, I have the image of Sean AP Ryan looking over the filming of Set to Kill or The Pius Trilogy and going insane over the writing, the casting, the plot and the dialogue.... Yeah, that'll be a short story soon enough.

People wonder why I tell people who want to write a book .... to NOT DO IT. Seriously, if you want to write books for a living, you shouldn't. I write books because I have to. Period. I have people in the back of my head who will not shut up, who want me to write stuff. They don't sit down, they won't shut up, they don't go quietly away.

Sean A.P. Ryan? The entire Ryan family is like this. SAPR was never supposed to happen. Sean Patrick Ryan, of the far future -- 2360 or 3360, give or take an edit -- and he was the ultimate badass. Once I finished my first draft of the epic space opera, I was done. And my next book was It Was Only On Stun!

You could say that It Was Only On Stun! had one of my first writer's block instances ... or you would, if I had stayed on that long enough to worry, I just moved on to a completely different series. I Left Stun! alone. It Was Only On Stun! was simply not going anywhere ... Then there was Sean A.P. Ryan, and, damn it, the Ryan family was harassing me throughout space and time.  Heck during The Pius Trilogy, it was not going to have any Ryans in it. In fact, Giovanni Figlia? Scott Murphy? The Williams family? All of them were side characters in another book -- and I've got a half dozen other books that no one has seen yet -- and this would have been their moment to shine.

Here I was, writing along, minding my own business ....

And then Sean freaking A. P. Ryan comes the hell out of nowhere.

...Okay, fine, screw you, Sean, you're going to be a bit player....

Though of you people who have read Pius knows just how well that worked.

Now imagine every single book being something like that, where the books insist they be written, period.

So, if you're like me, and you have to write .... why would you ever have a problem writing? I mean, heck, It took me a month or two to pump out Set to Kill, and all that needed was one person to tell me to do another Sean AP Ryan novel, and another person who wanted Sad Puppies Bite Back.

The answer is simple: only when you're really, honest to God, tired. Bone weary and brain dead tired.

Right now ... Well, you can probably guess why I'm bringing this up. I'm kinda tired. I'm working on three books right about now. I'm still going. I'll start falling down soon enough.  I may take off for February, mostly with the radio show.

Be well all. I promise not to die anytime soon.



Also, if you haven't already, check out some of the books below.