I've been slightly jet-lagged since I got back from Munich, and I've been on-call all week for jury duty, and there's been a heatwave, but none of that is bugging me. It's the writing. Actually, calling what I've been doing this week "writing" would be generous. I've been doing a lot of staring at the screen. I'm having a hard time plotting the latest MONK book and I've been trying to pick-up where I left off three months ago on my "stand-alone" crime novel. It has been going sluggishly…when it's going at all. I'm hoping I'll get back in the groove soon.
Glad you had a good time in Europe. I wonder if the jet lag would disappear if you spent a couple days in London before your next series of meetings.
When I get “black screen-itis” I read up on the reasearch and the ideas seem to come. Plus I think about the obstacle the hero takes all book long to overcome. But you already know this.
Sounds like you’ll have a great time at the book festival!
Neither jet-lag nor a heat-wave helps the writing muscles to work efficiently, and jury duty is usually enervating – even for a crime novelist. Dan’s suggestion for overcoming Black Screen Syndrome does work some of the time (glad it works for you, Dan!) but general exhaustion isn’t conducive to research.
To see a crime writer with a really serious case of block – and paranoid with it – you might be interested (or amused) to see such an individual portrayed in a new novel entitled “Perilaus” (http://www.eloquentbooks.com/Perilaus.html). I promise you, Lee, the protagonist of that book is having a worse time than you are!
Mark Henderson.
Definitely feel your pain…I was in that same writing mode for much of the month of March. :-\
Sluggishness,staring blankly at the screen, trouble plotting, despair, misery…sounds like my normal work day.