{"id":525,"date":"2012-06-21T03:34:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-21T03:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/2012\/06\/21\/writers-block\/"},"modified":"2012-06-21T03:34:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T03:34:00","slug":"writers-block-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/2012\/06\/21\/writers-block-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Writer’s Block"},"content":{"rendered":"

You deserve an update. I rewrote my book requested by Shadow Mountain. I mailed it in about two months ago. If my understanding of the publishing world proves accurate, I have anywhere from four to ten more months before I’ll hear back.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I’ve always had the sneaking suspicion that something in that story was “out of whack,” or wrong, or something. The problem? I discovered the problem about two weeks after submitting the draft. I realized I must move around a LOT of plot and make my main villain a lesser one.<\/p>\n

That discovery left me with a determination to plow through the book one more time and make things right, so to speak. But after a few days of work in this direction, it also left me with a huge bout of writer’s block (which I normally try to reject even exists).<\/p>\n

It’s a good thing I already have much of the sequel written because this writer’s block is probably the worst I’ve ever had…The following is a story I began a few days in an attempt to break it. I like the premise, but what’s that worth coming from the author of the story? This is ALL I have written since the block kicked in:<\/i><\/p>\n

____________________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
   George stood there watching, cold and reserved, unwilling to do anything of help. Not that he could act as help, but at least he should try, he expected.<\/div>\n
   It did not feel right. She sat there crying for no sound reason and he stood there watching. Oh well, he decided. He was through with this scene.<\/div>\n
   George opened the portal and stepped through.<\/div>\n
   \u201cWhat a disappointment, hey George?\u201d Thomas asked. \u201cWe thought you had her there for a moment.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cSo did I,\u201d George said. \u201cYou know women, though. You never can tell. You could be right on the verge of victory and then you suddenly lose. It happened – go figure.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cWell well done anyway,\u201d Thomas patted George on his back.<\/div>\n
   \u201cYou got any more missions for the day?\u201d George asked.<\/div>\n
   \u201cMaybe we should wait until tomorrow,\u201d Thomas said, looking worried at George.<\/div>\n
   \u201cI\u2019m not tired,\u201d George said. \u201cIn fact I\u2019m really quite enjoying things right now.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cYou look pretty tired.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cYou can\u2019t make me end on a bad note like that lady.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cYou\u2019re sure?\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cI\u2019m sure. One more mission for the day.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cOkay,\u201d Thomas said. Turning to the technicians he said, \u201cFind us a good one.\u201d<\/div>\n
   A few minutes passed as they looked for another mission.<\/div>\n
   At last, \u201cAha! This one\u2019s a killer for sure,\u201d the head technician O\u2019Neil said.<\/div>\n
   Little did he know how accurate of a statement that would prove to be.<\/div>\n
   \u201cFire her up,\u201d Thomas said.<\/div>\n
   O\u2019Neil did. Strands of light crossed the portal entrance as a scene began to reveal itself on the other side.<\/div>\n
   Thomas grabbed for the end of the paper as it began printing off the long set of instructions for the job.<\/div>\n
   \u201cLet\u2019s see,\u201d he said. \u201cThis looks like a difficult one. Could involve some time and place travel. Another one of those \u2018world hangs in the balance\u2019 type of missions. You sure you\u2019re up to the task?\u201d<\/div>\n
   George grinned. \u201cThat\u2019s more my style. How long do I have?\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cLooks about…\u201d Thomas scrolled through more of the printing which was still making its way out of the printer, \u201cthirty-nine seconds.\u201d<\/div>\n
   The printer continued to spew out more and more paper as the seconds ticked away.<\/div>\n
   \u201cThere\u2019s a lot we\u2019ll be expecting from this mission,\u201d Thomas said, continuing to scroll through the paper.<\/div>\n
   \u201cI\u2019m not sure what the big deal is though. It looks like your first assignment is simply to make sure a man by the name of Henry doesn\u2019t grab the wrong colored pencil. Not sure how that becomes a world-saving endeavor.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cA mystery mission,\u201d George said, grinning, \u201cjust my style.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cIndeed,\u201d Thomas said, continuing to scan the new pages of printing. \u201cIt\u2019s a whole heap of stuff here. Oh, you\u2019ll be going in on three…two…one.\u201d<\/div>\n
   George stepped through the portal and it closed behind him.<\/div>\n
   Immediately the figurative sirens went off from Thomas\u2019s side of things.<\/div>\n
   \u201cOh freak!\u201d his arms dropped limp. Not one of those missions, he thought as the printer continued to spew out continuous page after continuous page of information for the assingment. Not one of those!<\/div>\n
   Humbert approached Thomas. \u201cMy portal shut down all by itself. Any idea why that might be? We can\u2019t send Robert in for his next assignment because it won\u2019t go back on.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cWhat\u2019s the big idea?\u201d Parry shouted as he too came upon them. \u201cOur portal froze as I was about to sent Bert out on another mission. It won\u2019t let us – it says something about your portal.\u201d<\/div>\n
   Thomas\u2019s heart sunk. Please no, please no! he shouted inside.<\/div>\n
   He looked up at the other men – more approached as well.<\/div>\n
   \u201cI just sent George in on an assignment – one of the \u2018world hangs in the balance\u2019 sort,\u201d he said. \u201cAs you can see, the printer is still pouring out information on the job.\u201d<\/div>\n
   He held up the large string of pages to demonstrate what he\u2019d said.<\/div>\n
   \u201cBut all jobs print out everything before the person steps through the portal,\u201d Humbert said.<\/div>\n
   \u201cAnd why does my portal insist you two are to blame?\u201d Ethan asked, pointing at Thomas and his portal.<\/div>\n
   Thomas took a deep breath. He\u2019d never been around for one of these<\/i> assignments and he\u2019d hoped he never would be. So much for dreams, right?<\/div>\n
   \u201cNot all jobs print everything before a person steps through the portal,\u201d Thomas said.<\/div>\n
   \u201cThose missions?\u201d Larry, a newer portal-guy gasped. \u201cI did my thesis on those! I never thought I\u2019d actually get to see one of them.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cWhat does he mean \u2018those missions?\u2019\u201d Humbert asked. An older portal-man, Humbert often forgot about the intricacies of their jobs and had settled in for many many years to the mindset that everything always functioned as it should and would never malfunction or act differently than it had for any of his life.<\/div>\n
   \u201cThose mission,\u201d Thomas sighed, \u201care the<\/i> missions. Where the power of all portals working or retired go to ensuring the success or failure of just one mission. That\u2019s why none of your portals are working. I didn\u2019t realize what I was sending George to do or I\u2019d never have let him go.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cYou couldn\u2019t have stopped him from going,\u201d Larry said. \u201cAt least they couldn\u2019t have with the others I studied.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cBut what does that mean for the rest of us then?\u201d Humbert asked. \u201cIf we can\u2019t use our portals right now, what do we do?\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cWe watch George and hope he gets things right,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThere aren\u2019t many cases of this type of mission.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cOnly three,\u201d Larry said. \u201cWell, four with this one.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cThank you,\u201d Thomas said, not grateful at all for Larry\u2019s knowledge on the subject. \u201cI guess we\u2019re all portal-watchers now.\u201d<\/div>\n
   Professional portal-watchers and normally portal-travellers turned their attention to the printer. It continued to put out page after page of information on George\u2019s current mission. After a good hour or so the printer finally put out its final page and duties and Thomas set about making sure tasks and responsibilities got divvied up properly to ensure a successful mission or as little of a failed mission as possible.<\/div>\n
   \u201cWe\u2019d better work on rotating shifts,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cWe could be here for quite some time from the looks of it. If anyone\u2019s tired right now, I\u2019d recommend you get some rest. We\u2019re right outside the battlegrounds but that does not mean we can afford foolish mistakes.\u201d<\/div>\n
   The group of portal-watchers and others hunkered down for the long journey ahead.<\/div>\n
 * * * * *<\/o:p><\/div>\n
   At first glance, George thought he recognized this place. He\u2019d seen it before. Something called \u201cthe 1950s,\u201d he thought.<\/div>\n
   Then something crashed into him.<\/div>\n
   \u201cSorry about that, sir,\u201d a teenage boy stood up and dusted himself off. \u201cI didn\u2019t see you there.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cThat\u2019s quite alright,\u201d George said. \u201cI hope I didn\u2019t beat up your bike too bad.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cIt\u2019ll be fine,\u201d the boy said. \u201cI\u2019m Henry by the way.\u201d<\/div>\n
   \u201cHenry,\u201d George repeated, alarm bells going off in his mind. \u201cI\u2019m George.\u201d<\/div>\n
   He extended his hand and Henry took it in a handshake.<\/div>\n
   \u201cSay Henry, you don\u2019t have  a pencil on you, do you?\u201d George asked.<\/div>\n
   \u201cOf course.\u201d Henry went to grab a pencil from his shirt pocket, but it was not the one that glowed.<\/div>\n
   \u201cHow about that red one there,\u201d George asked, pointing at the pencil that glowed.<\/div>\n

   \u201cSure Mister.\u201d Henry handed George the glowing pencil.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You deserve an update. I rewrote my book requested by Shadow Mountain. I mailed it in about two months ago. If my understanding of the publishing world proves accurate, I have anywhere from four to ten more months before I’ll hear back. In the meantime, I’ve always had the sneaking suspicion that something in that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tdspeirs.com\/oldblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}