Writer's Block, by K S Mulholland (Australia)

See K S Mulholland’s The Frank Shutter Collection Series..

I wrote about this many years ago, and I’ve followed this method to today.

Rule 1. Have as many projects on the go as possible.

That’s it. There is no Rule 2.

Allow me to elucidate: There was a time in the early 1970s when I had the desire to write a fiction work the size of Lord of the Rings, which is around a half million words duration. Back then I was a novice at this kind of work. True, I had chanced my hand at fiction through my school years, but after that, until the age of 27, I had written little.

So, the task of five hundred thousand words seemed improbable. Technically it could be achieved if you simply wrote the word ‘bread’ a half million times.

During that period I worked in Australian television, so it would have to be realised during my time off.

Contemplating it, I thought I would write around two or three thousand words a week, say conservatively two thousand. Mostly I managed a thousand. Therefore the entire project would take some ten years. I plodded on. With plotting, re-writes, editing, typing and writer’s block, it took me close to twenty years.

I had learned nothing.

It wasn’t till much later that I started writing numerous things altogether. And that is when I finally came to the conclusion that if one m/s dried up, I could go on to a variety of others in progress; thus giving my confidence a boost, easing off the self-imposed pressure that writers feel, and emptying my mind (well it is fairly empty anyway) of that particular Block. I’m doing it right now by penning this article.

And by doing something completely different. In my case it is painting, illustrating, working with oils away from literature; and reading. Biographies are my preference.

So okay, if you don’t paint or read, what are your desires? Sewing, t.v. viewing, cross-word puzzles, jig-saw puzzles, scrabble?? Get away from writing altogether, go for a walk, garden, tennis, golf. Do something in order to free up your mind. But, in doing something else, continue thinking about all the works you are applying your talents to. I often found inspiration from dreams, or walking the dogs. Relax your mind and it will come to you, that inspiration! That new idea for one of several of your works.

Apart from this article, I will return to a new painting I am doing, reading and correcting the m/s for the second Frank Shutter Files, and later, working on the next story. I have several: the forth vol of the fantasy, two other unfinished short stories and whatever my dreams or fancy provides.

Maybe take up crocheting; as Sonny Woods and Frank Shutter tell:

“I’ll come by for you after dark around eight. That should give you a chance to catch up on your cross-stitch.”

“Darning’s more my field.”

“You! What, your socks?”

“You can pick up a lot of life-saving skills in the Pen.”

“You’ve been inside?”

“Sure sister, you’d be surprised at what you can do with a darning needle, or a sock full of a wooden ball.”