Winner and Writing Block Dissolver

First, a big congrats to Stacy Coles for winning the 50th follower giveaway!! WOOT WOOT STACY! That’s the Pittsburgh Penguin hat I drew your name out of, cute isn’t it? Maybe not as cute as Mario Lemieux or Sidney Crosby, but cute nonetheless. Email me your address sweets, and the book will be sent out by the weekend! Thanks to everyone who participated and commented. I’ll try to make a better book selection at the 100th follower mark. Suggestions are appreciated!

Writer’s block and a quote that pushed me forward

So today, actually for over a week now, I’ve had a horrible case of writer’s block. At one point, I believe Jonathan Gould’s muse and my muse were off hiking together in the woods while he and I were stuck in a traffic jam of biblical blocking proportions. Regardless, two days ago I had an epiphany: a new lead on my story. Brilliance struck as my muse returned to me from the green muddy depths or the forest. Sadly, she didn’t stay long. I got going for awhile today, getting my new ideas down, and then SMACK! I hit a new block headfirst. Ouch.

So I did what any internet savvy writer would do. I put my laundry away. I checked twitter. I did some dishes. I checked my email. I stared at my WIP. I checked twitter. I played Gourmet Ranch. I stared at my WIP. I checked twitter. I whined on twitter. Then finally, I looked up some inspiring quotes and came upon one that I just needed to share.

“When I was in the middle of writing Eat Pray Love and I fell into one of those pits of despair that we will fall into when we’re working on something that’s not coming and we think ‘this is going to be a disaster, this is going to be the worst book I’ve ever written — not just that but the worst book ever written … So I just lifted my face up from the manuscript and I directed my comments to an empty corner of the room and I said aloud ‘ Listen you, thing! You and I both know that if this book isn’t brilliant that is not entirely my fault, right? Because you can see I am putting everything I have into this, I don’t have any more than this, so if you want it to be better then you’ve got to show up and do your part of the deal, OK? But you know what? If you don’t do that then I’m going to keep writing because that’s my job and I would please like the record to reflect today that I showed up and did my part of the job!” — Elizabeth Gilbert

Not bad hunh? Now if you leave this post picturing me screaming at an invisible being in the corner of my living room – you’d be… well yeah you’d be right.