I hate writer's block.  It's the bane of my existence.  It reminds me how much of an emotional process it is to bring a novel into reality.  If it were simply a matter of sitting at my desk for eight hours like a typical nine to five job, then life would be easier.  Fact of the matter is, creativity is a fickle creature.  It will play with you in grassy fields through scores of daisies, only to leave you an hour later when it wants to hide away in some unknown destination it has never told you of.  Creativity is the engine and when it stalls, you're left out in the cold.  I've tried long and hard to temper my emotions with discipline, but being a rather free minded person to begin with, it's been a rather hard road.  However, today I think I came across an idea that has appeared to have helped me, and could possibly bolster your writing career as well.

I've written three books so far so it seems like it would be weird that I've only just now come up with a sure-fire strategy to overcome writer's block.  Truth be told, I wrote my three Go books and my book on South Korea relatively quickly.  Writer's block did not have a chance to sneak up on me because my emotions were running high.  I was in a trance like state.  I simply HAD to get my thoughts down to paper, because the sooner I did, the sooner I could start telling people about my love of the game of Go.  Plus, I really felt I had hit upon a new way of teaching the game that would appeal to people outside of the usual suspects.  Yes, I did do it for the thought of receiving accolades, but that is not bad in and of itself.  Everyone loves to be acknowledged, and while it's always a good idea to keep oneself grounded in reality (after all, I don't expect to be J.K. Rowling any time soon) it's also good to build yourself up in your own mind and create a future where you'll be congratulated for doing such a great job.  It lends some buoyancy to your self esteem and keeps your excitement level at a good and sustainable level.  

For my next book, which I'm almost finished with, I had the excitement of doing NaNoWriMo to carry me through and push me to churn out thousands of words a day.  I finished the 50,000 word requirement, but the book was far from finished. It's a fantasy novel set in a land I invented while playing Dungeons and Dragons with some friends from college.  It has a typical set of adventurers: A paladin, a bard, a thief, and a priest.  I like to think the plot is fun and has some twists and turns.  I do really love the book, but it was the excitement of succeeding at NaNoWriMo that put me in my chair every evening.  I would fall in and out of love with different parts of the story, but it was the carrot at the end of the stick that pushed me to write more and more each day and focus my discipline.  After NaNoWriMo was over, I put the book down for over a month and found it hard to muster the energy to really go from third base to home.  Tonight, I've set about it again and I really have hit on how to keep myself going: control my level of excitement and maintain my positive thoughts.

Positive thoughts are like mental gasoline.  Envisioning yourself at a book signing, or perhaps being interviewed on television are great ways to boost your self esteem and give yourself that much needed lift to get through any rough spot in your writing.  Sure, none of that may ever happen.  Really though, who cares?  It's your imagination, and you wouldn't be a writer if your visual muscles weren't up to par.  Imagining your success, imagining yourself as an esteemed writer with all of the accolades and praise that comes with it is a great way to fuel yourself to keep writing. Everyone needs a carrot.  Sure, I know many people do it for the fun of it, as a side exercise to test their mental acuity or to explore their creative side.  To these people I say: fantastic!  That is your sponsoring emotion, the force that helps you progress to wherever you want to go.  That is the fuel for your engine, and might I add, a great elixir of the many to choose from.  For me, it is relishing my success and contributing something that other people will enjoy that helps me get through the rough patches, and focusing on that has proven my greatest weapon against my harshest foe: myself. 

So, Amazon has this new program where you publish one of your titles exclusively with them and they let people "borrow" your book.  You can still sell your book, but you're pretty much limited to the Kindle.  You can't even sell your book on your own blog, website, or through Smashwords or through Barnes and Noble.  Your royalties are based on how many people "borrow" your book during a set period of time.  Amazon puts forth a big pot of money, and then your percentage of total books borrowed is taken from this pot.  It sounds exciting at first, especially with all those big numbers, but...

For authors who aren't famous and do not yet have a fan base, this isn't all that appealing.  You need as many ways to get as many customers as possible.  Every little bit counts.  Sure, Amazon has the largest market share by far.  I sell probably 90% of my e-books through Amazon.  However, I wouldn't want to close down my own website, remove my books from my blog, and not sell on the Nook just to take part in this program.  If very few people know and trust me as an author, there is little chance they would borrow my book.  I looked at what books they have and I see nothing but big name authors and really famous works.  I've done decently with my Go books (I've sold about 3,000 so far), but I'm not ready to go toe-to-toe with "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."  That's not happening in the near future.  I've heard some arguments that this program might be good for new authors to get someone to read their work when they otherwise might not spring for it.  If that is the case, I could give my book away free and get promotion that way; I don't really see the difference.  The exclusivity is the downside for me. 

I also feels that this unnecessarily disadvantages people who don't have Kindles.  I don't own an e-book reader, but there are a lot of them, and I wouldn't want someone not to be able to read my book because of their preference in devices.  There are probably plenty of reasons why people do not buy Kindles, and I don't want to disadvantage them when I'm trying to get a fan base going.  For me, the program is rather unappealing.  I can see if you're Michael Lewis or Richard Dawkins that this program would be up your alley.  It essentially lets people who already know of your book to finally give you a try, especially if they've been meaning to but haven't got around to it.  For those of us who are still in the background, trying to shine brighter than say, Stephen Covey, is not going to happen without a lot of luck.  I'd like to hear other people's opinions on this program.  Maybe it would be a good way to get one's foot in the door with new readers?  What do you think?