About the author

Jesse’s life as a writer began when her husband made the brilliant observation that she was much happier writing than doing anything else. So she took the plunge and decided to do that full-time. After many years and many books in different sub-genres, she was bitten by the zombie bug (not a zombie, but the bug) and took off on a zany adventure into the world of Urban Fantasy. Soon zombies were not enough and now she is poised to take over the world with her not-so-normal paranormal stories which inject dark humor into uncommon circumstances.

When not coming up with stories about the weird and wonderful she lives in Tucson, AZ, with her high school sweetheart husband and two cats. She plays video games, hangs out with her favorite nephews, hikes in the beautiful mountains, watches wayyyyy too much reality TV (and some really good scripted TV), ponders all things geekish and madly scribbles notes on her next idea while she laughs at people who still have to shovel snow.

You can check out Jesse on her website, Twitter and Facebook.

Thoughts on Writer’s Block

How do you get past it? Do you have any tried and true methods for turning on the flow of creative ideas again? If so, do they always work?

I think every author has moments where she feels like she can’t write or doesn’t want to write or is just stuck when it comes to writing. Writing is a very emotionally exhausting process, at least for me, so there are times when I run up against the wall. When that happens I usually have a few methods to deal with it:

1. I check out where I’m getting stuck. Writing fiction is a little different than writing blogs or nonfiction, but with fiction I’m often stuck because I’ve gone wrong somehow in the story. Part of avoiding this is that I plot very heavily beforehand and it does help keep me out of “crap, what have I done wrong with this plot” blocks.

2. I read. When I’m stuck sometimes I go back a few chapters and read. It not only helps with the number one way I fix things, but it also sometimes gets me excited about the book again. If that doesn’t work, I read something else. Not for ideas, not to pick up something from someone else, but just to clear my “palate” with another story.

3. I take a break. I write a lot, I write full-time and I write fairly fast. There are times when I get a little overwhelmed or burned out. So if nothing else works, I will walk away. I plug “me time” into my deadlines, so I know I can do it a couple of times for each book and it won’t hurt my turn in schedule. After a day or two of doing other things, the book will start whispering to me again.