The Writer's Hiatus

SpaceStation Colt: Damnitio Exeum was originally completed in 1998, but the eBook wasn't released officially until 2009. No books were. And no books were written in that time - up and until after that point which means that the completion of From the Depths of Death in the Midst of Chaos (2010) did not occur until twelve years after the previous book was finished! We've all heard about writer's block before, but what makes a writer stop writing for over ten years?

We can start off by exploring the usual assortment of excuses like lack of support, questionable encouragement, inept business sense, prior creative obligations, technological limitations, personal tragedies, lost focus, diminished passion, and dwindling effort. It's quite easy to lay blame at the feet of other factors for what might appear to be one's own failure. But again, those are just excuses, and failure doesn't mean a whole lot if the person continues to get back up after being knocked down.

Besides, those are the types of things that only strengthen a savvy writer. Projects normally wind up being completed despite the distractions, and in spite of these very same time drains, it becomes that much more impassioned a finish for having dealt with them in the first place and transferred the realness of everyday tribulation to the work. That shows resilience and perseverance. Writing often benefits from and feeds off the trials of life experience since each can translate into a greater emotional depth with the words.

But over ten years? Aren't there like a myriad of different tricks which can usually be employed to help writers try and push through the barriers to creativity?

Pacing could've been utilized. Doing x-amount of words a day, although rigid and functional, might've helped.

Going into seclusion is a mainstay of many a determined writer. The enforced solitude should've had the potential to allow the words to flow more easily through the lonely graces of peace and quiet.

If a lack of confidence was the issue, numerous writing support groups exist throughout the SoNet for the express purposes of getting a writer back on track. These feelgood sessions can revitalize a weary creator's spirits while reenergizing the overall effort with a dose of some much needed inspiration.

There's a ton of other resources, but none of those were used either. The twelve-year creative gap would lead a person to believe that the writer just gave up. And for a small business, lack of consistency in product release is also tantamount to a death sentence. Not only do people tend to want to see continuous streams of content from a publisher but they also stand a better chance of noticing the published work because of the multiple (customer) touches. It's the law of averages and the reason why this web site puts out scheduled eBook releases, normally runs a free serialized story throughout the year, maintains a staggering encyclopedia, and graciously gives me the space to provide my fight rankings and literary observations such as this. Something's gotta stick, so for that fact alone, all of our contributors' hands remain on deck in throwing everything that we can up against the wall.

It's not my place to question another's heart or effort - especially in a company like Dope Enterprises. If ever there was a place where a person got out what they put in, that's here. It is, however, my place to get down to the bottom of why it took until 2009 to get things going.

I'll tell you this: The reasoning had nothing to do with a writer's ability to be able to turn it on and up at the time of their choosing. It had nothing to do with anything other than preparedness. Written differently, if you're getting ready to attempt a triathlon, it might behoove a person to train first. True professionalism in the art of any craft demands this.

Again, writer's block normally gets all the credit (or most of the blame) for gumming up the creative works, but what if a writer just isn't ready? Sometimes, the writing, which garners the majority of the scrutiny, is not the issue because there is no issue and only a proactive desire for continuous improvement. Writers do pushups too.

And lift weights. They might do some cross-training in other creative areas and perhaps different genre disciplines within a particular tract in order to strengthen specific aspects of their core. Cardiovascular and flexibility exercises can all become a part of a regimen to increase endurance for longer projects and broaden horizons for more involved efforts.

But what's most impressive to me is their quest for education. If writer's block always seems to play the villain, then maybe that's because actual 'writing' can too often play the hero. When the keys on the keyboard aren't clicking away, the gears can still be churning along inside the brain. Actors and actresses study their parts before performing them. Professional guilds perfect their respective trades and often receive additional tuneups to keep their skills sharp. I've trained in the Dyoogie Discipline all my life and continue to work on my technique daily because I can always get better. Taking my chances out in the field without taking my time in the gym would get me killed.

Now, maybe it's not that deep with writing a book, ...but isn't it though? Or shouldn't it be? After a twelve-year absence where writing was neither the culprit nor the hindrance, I would submit that it is. For a writer to take more than a decade off from what is arguably a first love means that the writer had to grow individually as a person in order to it justice. Whether that entails reading, experiencing new things, or learning more about old things, this need to evolve varies with different people.

The proof is in the result. From the Depths of Death in the Midst of Chaos (2010) could not have been written back in 1999. The complexity of those concepts, the massive scope of its story line, and the command of language were too great. Fresh out of college, the writer hadn't lived enough 'life' to be able to pull it off. Heck, I'm just out of college, and I feel like I don't know anything about this universe. I couldn't imagine how an overwhelmed writer must have felt in being tasked with tackling a project of this magnitude. SpaceStation Colt: Damnitio Exeum (1998/2009) was a wonderful story, written at the pinnacle of the transition between being an adolescent and becoming an adult. It's a fun read which really came together well, but I could tell the difference in the writing between those books, and I'm betting that you'd be able to as well.

There's no need for me to go into the specifics of what went on during those twelve years which brought this kind of effort out of the writer because it's irrelevant to the literary discussion, and as aforementioned, would not be worthy of receiving an ounce of credit for the pulling off of something that it likely tried to prevent. I'd never want to cheapen the effort either by falsely applying accolades to outside (of one's control) forces. Since the writer deserves the blame for having taken so long to finish the book, I believe that the writer should also receive all the credit for its completion and success. Where I come from, that's called accountability, and it works both ways.