3T Writing Tidbit - Writer's block -- isn't always a bad thing.

Here's a controversial take. Writer's block -- isn't always a bad thing.

I have a couple series to finish. Life did a hard right turn on me in 2018 and I've got a full-time job, so those series are going to be a while.

But I've been thinking about the final book in the Pull of the Moon series, Soul Mates. Back pre-2020 I had the main characters scoped out and a plot outline and had actually written three chapters -- and rewritten those chapters -- and restructured the plot -- and rewritten those chapters yet again, thinking it was writer's block, before I came to a realization.

I didn't like the male hero.

Half-heartedly I pushed at it, but between studying for my application developer degree and reeeally not liking the hero, I didn't get anywhere.

A new job was followed by a couple promotions. Life is still chaotic but I found myself thinking about Soul Mates in my spare time. And realized a second thing.

The female hero is...well, not boring exactly, but blah.

There are a ton of books out there with characters who aren't bad, per se, but who are average. That's not bad (per se) -- it's just that you only have three things to work with: character, setting, and plot. Writing a novel is already hard. Bland-ize any one of these three elements and you'll have to work ten times as hard.

Give your characters pizzazz and suddenly the whole process sparkles.

My female hero was a seer who went blind after a vision and played piano (yawn). Nixie is a 5-foot punk rock musician with a vocabulary straight out of Urban Dictionary (sparks interest). My male hero was a half-wizard, half-spirit creature who'd been imprisoned his whole life with his mother (um...) Julian is a 6-foot lawyer with a fangy secret (and also the exact opposite of Nixie, more sparks flying!).

I still haven't figured out what will light the fire in my Soul Mates couple, but once I do I know their romance will sizzle the words will pour out.

Moral of the story -- listen to your muse when she scuttles your work. Pushing through is sometimes effective, but sometimes there's more wrong than just writer's block.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.