Daily Archives: March 27, 2011

A Fantasy Life by Janet Quinn Cornelow

Writer’s Block!!

I think it started when I hurt my back last year. And, it seems to persist. Losing my job just seemed to make it worse.

I started a new fantasy romance this year. I wrote eight pages, which I somehow deleted along with the essays I was grading. It took me three weeks, but I finally managed to rewrite those eight pages, only it was more like six. I don’t know if it is better or just shorter. I got a bit further in the story, then I stopped.

It was February that I wrote those pages. The beginning of February and I am still at eight pages with no idea of what my characters are going to do next.

I have spent time building the universe. I know who my villain is and what he wants. I know why he does what he does. I know my hero and heroine and of course they have to stop the villain and fall in love. That is easy enough.

How they get to that point though, I have no idea. I was talking with Debra Young at lunch today about the problem. She often runs into this problem. My problem is that I always know what my characters are going to do next. Or at least they do. Now. Nothing.

It is very disconcerting. Someone better decided what has to happen next because all I am doing is grading papers and playing Mah Jong. There has to be a way to get this book moving forward.