Writers Unbound

It happens to the best of us. We have an idea for a book, a burning idea. So there in our cozy writing nook, we eye our laptop, frown at the phone, and stretch back in our ergonomically correct chair. We make a plan and start writing. We might even be lucky enough to meet with an agent, and even luckier still if the agent gives you his business card and says, “E-me with the first three chapters.�

We might then be unlucky enough to simply become stuck. And that is exactly where I am today with a nonfiction book that has been on my desk for 15 months. Half of it is done. The other half begs to be finished. And all of me hesitates every single day when I get a free moment, knowing I should be pounding away at that book. But for some reason, at the moment, I am unable to proceed.

I’ve asked myself if I really believe in the book. My first two books were hard to write, but I stuck to the course and got them down on paper. A publisher gave me contracts, two in a row, with an advance for each. They weren’t bestsellers, but they’re still on his list. One was published in 2004; the other in 2005.

I keep telling myself in order to finish the book, I have to cut back on freelancing. But the freelance work is a sure thing. Book royalties are iffy at best, impossible to calculate, because the bookstore can return the 20 copies that didn’t sell after you left your successful 50-book signing in a blaze of glory.

Somehow, I finished a new poetry collection. I’m editing the poems now. I have several options for publishing. So if I could finish a book that certainly won’t hit the bestseller list, why haven’t I finished one that might have an inkling of a chance?

So I find myself questioning this nonfiction manuscript. Because every thing I ever wanted to write, I simply wrote. I asked myself this morning as I rushed out to do an interview for a story for one of my newspaper clients if maybe I have writer’s block where this book is concerned.

I’ve never had it before. So maybe I’m learning to recognize it.

And maybe this isn’t the book I should be writing.

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