It’s official: I am blocked.  Not a bowel thing, I’m talking writer’s block.  Several different stories I have tried to work on recently have all come to a screeching halt.  

Part of it is probably my distraction from having so many stories out.  I’ve never had so many under consideration, especially stuff I really believed had a shot at selling.  My quality has gone up of late (I think) and maybe I’m expecting too much of myself.  Like Mur says, I am allowed to suck.  Easier said than done.  

So what am I going to do about it?  In the past, switching stories has tended to unblock me.  I dug out an older story based on an idea my father pushed on me.  I read it last night and was pleased with what I had, but it was only half done.  It had gone through a lot of iterations to get where it is now and it’s ready for an ending (and a middle).  I’ve already tapped away at it.  While I still don’t feel like I’m producing grade-A prose, I’m reasonably happy with the way it’s progressing.  I’ll work on it a lot tonight; I’m aiming to add 2000 words before bed.  I seldom get large chunks of keyboard time.

My hope is that finishing this story will open up some creative juices for at least one of my other works in progress.  There are quite a few.

• Untitled sound story (that’s the one I’m picking up now)
• Untitled mother vs. daughter story 
• Leech Run — story that got me waitlisted for CW, but my rewrite stalled out
• Untitled female warrior story
• Thinking Out Loud — military experiment story
• All my novels: Honor by Proxy, untitled YA space novel, Tones of Magic, Eversio and Podera, The Legend of Eversio (prequel), untitled space comedy…  It’s a wonder I ever finish anything.

With all these options to work on, surely I can get something written.  I’ll keep everyone posted.  In the meantime, I’d love to hear other people’s writer’s block stories and how you’ve gone about beating it.  

-Oso