We Have A Visitor!

I’m delighted to have multi-published author, Taylor Tryst, as my guest today! She has graciously agreed to discuss a topic very close to my heart: writer’s block. Taylor and I have both been struggling with this problem for quite a while, and I’ve asked her to share her experiences and insights. Welcome, Taylor, the blog is all yours!

Back to Basics
Okay, I’m contradicting myself here, but trust me when I say that there’s a method to the madness.

There was a huge stink with authors who were members of Romance Writers of America over the last year or so, and since I had moved, and had previously discontinued my membership, I was just adamant that I no longer needed to be a member of RWA or my local chapter.

I mean, I live six hours north and probably wouldn’t be able to attend but one or two meetings a year. I’d dropped my membership due to my location, and I was successful enough on my own.

Or so I’d thought.

Sure, in the beginning of my career I’d joined the local chapter, Midwest Fiction Writers, as well as Romance Writers of America. I began going to local meetings and reaping the benefits of being surrounded by published authors as well as other writers who had the same goals and desire to reach publication. I always found the meetings themselves to be very inspirational. The vibe was incredible and infectious, the published authors so generous with their time and knowledge.

Then I moved north six hours and without the local meeting, I decided that it no longer benefited me to be a member of either group due to my inconvenient location.

Several years flew by and the unthinkable happened. I hit a bout of writer’s block of epic proportions. I couldn’t write, I couldn’t edit, I couldn’t even sit down and read my own work.

I asked for the advice of my peers, and tried like hell to follow it. The advice was brilliant. From writing and inspirational tricks to the suggestion of just relaxing and taking a short break, I tried it all.
Nothing worked, however. Not a damned thing. I’d lost something, and I’d drifted so far off course that I didn’t know if I’d EVER find my way back.

Serious issues from the real word had my head spinning. Medication regulated my mood, and every day that I didn’t write I felt the world of fiction slipping away. I’d worked hard to become a published author, I dreamed, I struggled to work full time, to be a hockey mom, and yet I managed to survive and write. Even after a painful divorce from a 14-year marriage, my professional self flourished.

So I was stumped when I could barely punch out an email, and when sitting down at my laptop brought tears to my eyes. I began to contemplate taking a break that might be permanent. I imagined the end of my career, the dousing of my dreams, and of walking away from it all. Could I turn my back on what had once been my only desire? What had once been my only saving grace?

I honestly didn’t know.

I’d sit and stare at my work in progress, the words blurring into a series of endless letters that made no sense. I began to loathe my computer, some days being so depressed that I couldn’t even work up the gumption to check my email.

I decided to do the only thing that felt right at the time. I made the decision to forget about writing, to stop putting pressure on myself and to take a mental vacation from it all. That decision was heartbreaking, but looking back now, I realize that it was the right one to make.

I began reading romance novels again, romantic suspense, and paranormal romances, which I’d always loved. I started watching movies with my mom, and I focused on all of the little tasks I needed to accomplish that had always taken a backseat to writing. I began spending time with my horse, haltering him, brushing him, and actually relaxing outside of myself for the first time in years.

I tackled major spring cleaning, jobs around the house that needed to be tacked but always fell to the wayside. I cleaned out the junk drawer, threw away old paperwork and ten year old receipts, and in that process I began to notice something happening.

It started in the car one day. On a trip out of town, I began to think about my book and their plots. Talking them over with my sister, tossing ideas around. Hmm, I hadn’t done that for over a year, and it felt so wonderful that I began to feel an itch.

I changed bedrooms and found my writing paraphernalia in boxes. I put up pictures, quotes that were writing related, and instead of giving me anxiety and dread, they made me smile again.

I found stacks of ‘how to’ books on writing, and actually picked them up. I began reading The Heroes Journey by Christopher Vogler. Oh my God, it was a revelation. Archetypes and plot lines. Dramatic function and the employment of crisis and climax, which are two different things by the way…lol

It all began coming back to me, and made me crave more. Made me crave the basics that I’d once been fascinated with.

Recently, I found myself cruising the internet. I ended up on the Romance Writers of America’s website checking out the new fee structure, thinking about re-joining both RWA and Midwest Fiction Writers. Will I make it to many meetings? Probably not, but maybe one or two this summer. It’s a six hour drive but just the thought of being surrounded by other authors, being inspired by the sheer drive of a group of unpublished writers with the common goal of writing for publication makes the drive to write return tenfold.

What’s the point of my rambling today? Well, I guess it’s that I’m going back to the basics. All of the things I did when I began this journey eleven years ago are suddenly relevant again, and I’m feeling hungry again.
I booked the hotel room for the RomantiCon conference that Ellora’s Cave is hosting in October. I’d planned to go last year, but life got in the way, as it often does.

I told myself that I’d go this year, but only if I began writing again. Kind of a treat to myself if I could make some progress, you know.

But then I remembered what an old friend had said in the beginning of this journey. I’d met her at my first MFW writers meeting and she said, “You have to invest in yourself. You have to act like a professional if you want to be a professional, and be taken seriously.”

I realized then that I’d been neglecting my ‘professional’ self for years. I moved, and I let personal issues overtake my professional life. Depression and health issues rocked me to the core and left me groggy, left my mind cluttered and my thoughts unclear. I was left feeling less like an author and more like a lost soul. I let myself drift away from the publishing world and sank into despair. We grew apart, my professional self and I, almost like a failing marriage, we just moved in different directions.

Saving a bad marriage or relationship takes work. It’s an investment. Self help books and date nights, fancy lingerie and deep conversations about feelings, sort of like trying to save a career.

My point here is that it’s about finding those elements again, the fundamentals that helped create this opportunity for me for me in the first place, and implementing them again. About making them matter, and that’s just what I intend to do, take the ‘Heroes Journey’ literally, one step at a time, to translate it into one word at a time, one paragraph at a time, and hopefully one book at a time.

Thanks for listening, and hey, I think this counts as having written, right?
Taylor

Absolutely, Taylor! Thank you so much!