Note from Nicole: I am honored to have today’s guest author, Eric Lodin. He’s the author of the upcoming novel, Soft Hearts: A Rett Swinson Mystery, to be released this May. He shares thought-provoking thoughts that makes me really wonder if writer’s block exists after all. Take it away Eric!
Have you ever spent all day in bed because you couldn’t decide what you were going to eat for breakfast? Me either. Like most of us, you schlep your groggy self to the kitchen and figure something out.
This is the approach I’ve generally taken with writing: Get to the keyboard, fumble around for the milk and cereal or whatever I can put my hands on, and make a meal. Not always the most satisfying meal. But something that breaks the fast and provides the energy I need to keep going.
Some people psych themselves out of putting pen to paper. Perfectionism tricks them into thinking they should do something else because nothing worthy is going to come of their efforts. That’s not writer’s block, though. Wondering whether you’re going to try to write is different from not knowing what to write.
Fortunately, it’s possible to kill both adversaries with the same stroke of the pen.
A writer is like an improv comedian who, in order to perform, just needs to find their way to the stage. In writing terms, the trick is to sit down at your desk, open the refrigerator of memory, pull out the first thing you see, and start improvising.
On a given morning, I usually don’t know what I’m going to explore. I start out by scrolling through my list of characters or some of the scenes I’ve already written until something begins to nag me. A scene that needs fleshing out, a theme I’ve been playing with, a character who makes me curious. If I put my amateur sleuth Rett Swinson in a certain situation … what might happen? Well, there’s only one way to find out…
Writing is a lot like running. Over the past thirty years I’ve logged an average of 10 miles per week (about 15,000 miles in all). That said, I have almost never felt in the mood for a jog. I slip on my sneakers with the simple faith that I’m going to enjoy the process. By the time I hit mile two I’m usually loving my decision. The flow captures me in its stream.
Always expect that the first few words or sentences you write are going to be throwaway. Like that Nissan pick-up I learned to drive in high school, first gear is only meant to get the wheels moving and nothing more. Second gear is where the speed begins.
This is exactly how I wrote Soft Hearts: A Rett Swinson Mystery. I never had much of a plan. Just a memory of how good it felt the last time I sat down to write.
With this approach, daily writing becomes habit forming, a natural way of life. You’ll be surprised how quickly the words begin to layer, how intricate your story becomes. What may start off as cold, gooey oatmeal gradually evolves into a grand smorgasbord.
Writer’s block? I’ve never really believed in it.
You can stop believing in it, too.
About Soft Hearts: A Rett Swinson Mystery
When Harriett “Rett” Swinson’s husband betrayed their twenty-year marriage, he destroyed their working relationship, too. Now Rett drinks too much wine and doesn’t see much reason to get out of bed in the morning—until one day there’s a knock on the door by the across-street-neighbor asking for a ride to quilting class. Before Rett knows it, the quirky, artistic community at Needless Necessities has roped her in as a volunteer and is making her wonder if she should pick up the painting hobby she abandoned long ago to make her husband’s real-estate venture successful.
Rett is in the process of rebuilding her life when a group of Halloween trick-or-treaters discovers her neighbor, retired English professor and poet Wanda Hightower, an enigmatic shut-in known for her outlandish tirades, dead on her porch, stabbed in the back and through the heart. Was her killer a random psychopath in search of blood on All Hallow’s Eve—or one of the neighbors who helped with her lawn’s makeover gone wrong? Wanda claimed to have dirt on nearly everyone in the neighborhood, so the list of suspects is long.
Finding the killer will require Rett to reconstruct Wanda’s turbulent past. Meanwhile, she will have to weigh her growing attraction for Homicide Detective Darryl Schmidt against her desperate need for independence—and a growing feeling that an innocent man is being singled out by the police for the murder.
Pre-order your copy on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
About the Author, Eric Lodin
Eric Lodin (www.ericlodin.com) is the author of Soft Hearts: A Rett Swinson Mystery, which will be released on May 22, 2021. (Click here to pre-order.) Lodin lives in North Carolina where he enjoys hikes in the woods, backyard football, and spending time with family. You can follow Eric Lodin Mystery Author on Facebook.
Very well said!