This isn't a writer's block. I have a story arch, characters, and even settings that I like and want to write about. But I'm finding that for the past several weeks, every time I sit down to write, a little voice says "what's the use? You're not a good writer."

So I leave the computer and do other stuff. And another day goes by without a single word being added to my manuscript.

Anyone else experienced this? Has solutions?

Thank you.

• This isn't a writer's block. I have a story arch, characters, and even settings that I like and want to write about. But I'm finding that for the past several weeks, every time I sit down to write, a little voice says "what's the use? You're not a good writer."

 Okay, let’s assume you’re absolutely right, and you aren’t a good writer—yet. So fix it. There are lots of people we call no talent hacks out there making a living at writing. What do they have that you don’t? Focus on identifying and fixing that and the writing will improve.

I looked at your novel and it’s not a matter of your talent or potential as a writer. Nor is your story a problem. From what I see it’s that you, like me, and most people, assumed that since we’re voracious readers, and learned writing in school, we have the tools we need if we, as Danielle said, above, exercise our writing muscle to develop it. But can that work? It seems to me that if that’s all we need most of our new writers would be new high school grads who love to read, and the rejection rate for manuscripts wouldn’t be so high.

What I’m getting at is that there is more to it then desire and dedication. There are the tricks-of-the-trade, and all the things that once you hear them make you say, “Damn, why didn’t I see that for myself?

Here’s an example: At least half the novels in your library have something different about the first paragraph of every chapter. It’s obvious, and we’ve been seeing it all our lives. Do you know what it is? I didn’t, till it was pointed out. In fact, many of those novels that display the feature have the same thing happen after a scene break or a white space.

The answer is that the first paragraph of a chapter often isn’t indented. Most people don’t notice, and many, when they look for the difference don’t see it because it’s something we don’t pay attention to. And if we miss something that obvious…

Here’s another, larger point: On the stage, and in films, the story is acted out, not told. We never see the author, and films in which a narrator speaks, usually limit that narrator’s role to introducing a scene. Is that how you present your fiction, by placing the reader on the scene, so they’re seeing what the character is seeing, and reacting as the character might? Or are you, as yourself, telling the story from the comfort of your present, as if you were on stage or at a campfire?

Most new writers present the story as if they’re personally telling it. Do your favorite authors do that, or do you feel you’re actually living the scene as you read?

What I’m getting at is that I’m guessing that the reason you’re feeling disappointed in the story is that when you approach your work as a reader you see problems but are unable to identify the cause because you’re missing the knowledge and toolset of the pro. As Sol Stein observed, “Readers don’t notice point-of-view errors. They simply sense that the writing is bad.”

But handling POV is a learned skill, as are many of the compositional skills of the fiction writer. It’s not better, or worse, those skills are just different, and take as much time to practice into perfection as did the nonfiction skills we learned in our schooling.

So there it is, the secret of fiction writing: It’s all a trick—a series of tricks. Not everyone can do them well, true, but everyone can learn them. And if you haven’t, you’re facing the problem Mark Twain outlined when he said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

So here’s my prescription:

1. Read this. It’s a PDF download, part of a book called Don’t Murder Your Mystery. In it he explains why you need more than the general skill we call writing. www.bellarosabooks.com/PDF/DMYM_Excerpt.pdf

2. Try these articles on for size:

http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/scene.php
http://www.be-a-better-writer.com/scenes-and-sequels.html
http://writeitsideways.com/are-these-filter-words-weakening-your-fiction/

They can be a little like trying to take a sip from a firehose, because there’s a lot there, and it’s a very different approach to writing, but when presented with the problem of eating an elephant you do it one bite at a time.

If it makes sense, you want to pick up one of two books.

The first is the one the author of the first article suggests, Dwight Swain’s, Techniques of the Selling Writer. It is the single best book on writing fiction I’ve found. If it has any drawbacks it’s that it goes deeply into the subject and some people find it a dry read.

An alternate is Deb Dixon’s, GMC: Goal Motivation and Conflict. She was one of Swain’s students, and the book covers much the same ground, though she has some unique insights of her own. The writing is warm and easy, though not as detailed as Swain’s book. Either has the power to turn your world upside down, though in a good way. Neither will make a published writer of you. That’s your job. They will, though, give you the tools with which to become one.

Hope this helps. Sorry for the lecture, but that’s a hot button issue with me ;–}