Claire Hadleigh

Putting the finishing touches to my regency novella ebook, Passionate Persuasions , and hope to hit the submit button this coming weekend.   Scary stuff.  It's one thing to write, but it's another thing all together different to revise, edit, revise again . . .  You cry,  You tear your hair out because somewhere in the middle of all this creativity you changed the hero's name but didn't carry it throughout the entire story, You changed the heroine's hair color, which now clashes with everything she wears, You stopped writing for a few weeks and when you return, the story picks up in a different landscape, a different season, a different town . . .  where the heck are we? And the list goes on. And that doesn't include any grammatical corrections, sentence structure, chapter endings . . .  So why does one write?  Why torture oneself? Here's the secret:  because it ultimately is fun, enticing, magical.  You get to create ...

Creative block.  Ugh.  There's no excuse but when it hits, it hits hard.  The blank page stares back at you.  The white, glaring computer screen flashes in your face, mocking your lack of inspiration, increasing your perspiration. Some writers advise to 'just keep on writing!'  Write anything, any piece of drivel that falls onto the page or the screen, as long as you continue to write.  My brain comprehends that, but my heart just feels too weary to continue the battle. That's what struck me about the Agatha Christie quote you see above.  Inspiration can come at the oddest times and in the oddest places -- doing dishes, digging in the garden, waiting on line at the grocery store.  It comes in waves or it can dribble in like a slow leak.   The thing is to be ready for it.  Some artists sketch on napkins; some writers scribble a few indiscernible notes on the back of a receipt.  But here's the thing:  I think the physica...