I'm a busy dude. Sometimes I don't take care of myself so well. As a result, I've been in kind of a writing funk. As I've mentioned before, writing is my outlet. I sort out the stresses of life and the screaming problems of the world by unleashing my words. Most of those words will never be published.

Well, I got in a bit of a funk and have been 'too busy' to write. For me, that's like too busy to shower or eat. After a bit of this I don't want to write, then I can't write, and it spirals down from there.

I have plenty to write. I've heard some authors complain they don't know what to write. Trust me. I will run out of years before I run out of ideas. So what to do when I find myself in said funk? Here are a few things I've learned.

Breathe. Rest. Reflect. I look at what I'm busy with and I prioritize it. Usually I discover that something is out of whack. I'm playing stupid games on my phone or watching TV. Sometimes I'm stuck in an audiobook series and it sucks all my time up. Sometimes I'm just tired. I can't function on 5 hours of sleep like I once did. That's not healthy, anyway. So I get some extra rest. Even if I have to give up stuff I want to do to make it happen.

Once I get a little sleep under my belt, I re-energize. I go back and read my outlines, look at concept art, or even listen to the audio of my published books. Nothing gets me pumped to write like remembering why I'm doing it. I love this stuff. I love the characters, the worlds, the writing process. All of it. I just forget sometimes.

The last thing I do is tricky. Authors can develop some bad habits and never finish a story with this one. Write something new. I got hardcore stuck between books 1 and 2 and The Dragons of Dorwine. So I wrote an outline of a story I want to write way down the line. I got stuck editing The Soul of a Dragon, my third book, so I outlined the next story. It has a title and a full arc. It's an Ember story, and I am pumped about it. Writing that outline unstuck me.

This stuff may be useless for you, but it could also be a help to someone. If you have other suggestions for what to do when you get stuck, let me know. jack@authorjackadkins.com

Also, here's a free book about a vampire with the code of a knight. Interesting stuff.

Blood Knight