Writer's block

There was a time earlier this year when stories and associated creativity were pouring out of me. Everywhere I looked seemed to be giving me ideas for new stories, and I was jotting them down and getting all the pieces of them together in my head.

That's part of the way I write. The kernel of a story comes along, and slowly lots of other parts then agglomerate around it. I can hear the characters talking, see little flashes of their world and how it all fits together, work out the direction of the story, even the ending. It's what Stephen King called 'the hole in the page' in Misery - that glimpse through into another world that you've created and brought to life.

But for some reason, during this year that's stopped happening as much as it did. Characters I thought I knew well are just falling flat on the page, and their worlds just aren't taking shape the way they used to. That's why there haven't been many entries here and my Twitter feed's just been full of plugs for stuff I've already written - there's nothing new appearing right now.

I've been trying to write, but nothing's coming. I've done NaNoWriMo several times and completed it every time until this year, when my inspiration just deserted me and a story that I thought was going to fly merely sputtered and refused to take off. Characters that had been living and thriving in my head not long before turned to ciphers on the page, stuck in a torpor and letting plot happen to them, not doing anything for themselves.

The ideas are still there, and the characters still floating around so hopefully I'll get out of this hole sometime soon and get creating again. I just need to keep writing through this, and at some point, I'll be struggling away and everything will click again, all will spark into life and the hole in the page (or the screen) will open up.

Until then, I hope you're free of blocks and your characters come alive - and the block I've got now doesn't affect the things I've written before!