Is it Writer's Block or Indigestion?

MY UNFINISHED MANUSCRIPT HAS BEEN SITTING ON THE SHELF FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS and trying to get back into it has been harder than pulling teeth. I've already blogged about procrastination so I won't go there again. I did read over the one-hundred-or-so first-draft pages and was pleasantly surprised to find the brief beginning of the next chapter in my computer. It was almost effortless to get back into it and I was reminded of a how-to book, I think it was On Writing by Stephen King who advised writers to stop writing in the middle of a sentence so you can pick up where you left off the next day. If you haven't read his book, go and buy it right now. The best advice I got from On Writing helped me get over the guilt of reading when I thought I should have been writing. He said, "If you don't have time to read, you don't have time to write."

I wrote about four pages yesterday and stopped in the middle of the scene, knowing I would be able to jump back in today. Unfortunately I had to keep pausing while I was writing to look up historical facts and dates. 

I know from personal experience that if I get stuck for a long period of time, something is seriously wrong with the manuscript. It might be the plot or characterization, but when major writer's block halts the progress I know I need to make some major changes.

SOMETIMES IT'S NOT WRITER'S BLOCK, but just a snag and a change of scenery is needed. Puttering in the garden or taking a walk clears the mind. Clearing the clutter off the desk is a must. I can work if the clutter is behind me, but not around me. I tend to be very hard on myself. I used to think the first-draft should be perfect. I've lowered my standards now that I've been writing for almost twenty years.

I also used to believe that a novel should be written from start to finish. My last manuscript had a duel time frame and I wrote it entirely out of order. In fact, when I finished a chapter somewhere in the middle of the book I was thrilled to discover that I had completed the manuscript.

I'm not the first or last writer to suffer with writer's block. Some great authors admitted having writer's block. Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway did, but considering what happened to them, maybe I'll just say I have indigestion and go for a walk.