Four months ago I announced in grand fashion that I was starting a series of flash fiction posts. I wrote a good introduction. I then wrote a good first story. And while that was effortless enough, it then stalled. It’s been four months now, and though I have some embryonic stories on paper, I am suffering from blighter’s rock.
Have no fear – there are stories coming, I promise. There are many wonderful tiny truths waiting in the wings. I just need to get over the compulsion to keep editing them in the minutest detail.
Blighter’s rock.
Every writer seems to suffer from it at some point (except maybe Steven King).
I know what the story I’m working on should say, I just can’t get past the first 300 words. In the meantime, the novel I’m writing is proceeding at pace. There are zero problems with that. My writer’s block seems to be confined to my flash fiction. I am learning to appreciate the art of flash fiction the hard way – by discovering just how challenging it can be to write the little blighters.
There are times of course when my longer works also get stuck in this manner. However, I just never expected it to occur in stories spanning less than 1,000 words. I have set very high standards for these stories – in my own mind. I have held them up to the lofty works of writers like Harlan Ellison and Robert E. Howard. However, that’s not really the problem. The problem is quite simply that I am in a mental slough. I am not sleeping well. And while I am progressing on other creative projects, I’m currently not progressing on these.
The mind is indeed a perplexing thing. And the mind of an artist is more perplexing still.
Thanks for your patience. I hope it will be rewarded with a new story soon.
Ron L. Anderson 