When Writing Inhibits Writing and Mysteries are Locked Away

For the last six months I have been writing every day. Sadly, the writing has not been of my choosing as much of my day job is writing and editing others writing. Subsequently my desire to continue my creative works has diminished. 

Too much of a good thing right? When all i do is write and edit during the day, the last thing I want to do is continue it at home. In spite of this, the story in my head hasn't stopped, but goes on and on begging me to bring it to life. I wish I could tell you of the detail that dances through my head like a traveling butterfly, making its one attempt to bring new life before it returns to the soil. 

I, even in the busiest times, wave my little butterfly net and jump and run after the flickering thoughts that threaten to vanish. If I could only captured them on paper I would be able to share them with you, that is my purpose. It is like trying to describe a roller coaster to a blind person, something I have tried to do, how to relate not only the sight and sounds but the intense, euphoric, and exhilarating panic that knifes through me when the rails disappear from sight and my stomach falls. 

I want you the reader to know the story that I do, I think you would get a kick out of it.

The Slump

I have been stuck lately. The storyline for the third and final book in my fantasy series, The Seeker’s Burden, is bursting at the seams of my mind in its attempts to make it onto paper, but the physical requirement of fingers on keys has been met with resistance. I went through a similar phase between books one and two, where for several months I paced lethargically before my computer, stealing guilty glances at the waiting keyboard. The story was running laps in my head, waving its arms and screaming at the top of its lungs. It was driving me crazy, I felt like a too full balloon. Then suddenly, I began to write and in just over three months the first draft of book two was complete.

It is routinely called writer’s block, but I call it a breakdown in the physical manifestation of mental knowledge. Sounds smarter.

All I know is, based on my small breadth of experience, I should expect to be able to breakdown the mental barriers and put my fingers to work soon.  I have to remind myself constantly that yes, I am having difficulty expressing what is inside, but in spite of this I have finished two books in the very recent past. I am proud of that. The hardest part of writing is over, completing the first book. For me, once the first was complete and available for purchase, it was as if a door was thrown open and my personally forged chains were cast away.

My passion for writing goes back to my childhood and is only growing stronger. I am in a slump, but I will pick myself up and forge ahead soon enough. Writing is becoming a reason for joy and the reinvigoration of the desire to produce something tangible and singularly mine.

Feel free to reply with some of the blocks that have hampered your writing or other artistic endeavors. I would love to talk to others struggling to voice what is inside.