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The block is back

Natalie Faulk
Aug 17, 2017
2 min read

As I have finally finished my seventh (and last) poetry collection, Mirth and Lunacy, I am struggling to come up with an idea for my next book. I must confess that I have become hopelessly addicted to publishing books and truly enjoy having a concrete and tangible goal to which to look forward. However, not unlike these blog posts at the moment (and the final few poems in my last book that took seemingly eons to write), the scourge that is writer's block has resurfaced its ugly head.

I originally planned to pen another nonfiction piece on the importance of education for prison inmates, thus extending my Corrections Today piece from November 2014 as I enjoyed researching and writing The Downfall of American Corrections. Yet, as is the case with nonfiction, footnotes and bibliographies occupy considerable time and energy and are far too reminiscent of my six-year stint as an educational writer.

I have considered attempting another novel because, face it, what writer doesn't dream of penning the great American novel one day? Even more motivating is seeing certain authors' drivel achieving phenomenal success with sequels and movies and fans everywhere. (For the sake of not being sued, I shall refrain from naming any names, but I'm sure everyone knows of an author or two or 20 whose writing is horrendous and whose ideas are overwrought and cliche, yet who have achieved success.) Now, I don't write to become rich and famous (that's what blogging is for; the success part, ghost bloggers don't become famous.) I write because I enjoy it and I believe I'm rather quite good at it.

Nevertheless, as I am battling my latest case of writer's block, I hope that I will have some literary epiphany and come up with an interesting and feasible topic upon which to build a work of long fiction.

Any ideas are most welcome.