The Writings on the Wall #36

A moment of reflection

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Before 2020, I went through a very long “writer’s block” period—I’m talking decades here. I put that in quote for many different reasons—and I’d have a lot to say about it, but let’s keep that for another day. The main reason for the quotes here though is that it wasn’t a total block, as I’d write bits and pieces of stories here and there, never completing anything. Aside, that is, from a brief time in 2001 and another in 2003 when I wrote a few short stories and even finished my first ever novel. Oh, and there was another short burst in 2012, prompted by the tragic death of an author friend of mine for who I wrote (and self-published) a tribute novella (all of the above was in French by the way).

Why am I mentioning all this, you ask? Because it occurred to me last week that I was starting to slip down a slippery slope that, if left unchecked, might take me down another nasty drought like that one. To be honest, Substack likely prevented it as the pressure of having to post something every month has kept me going. But I also realized that it should not have been a pressure. It never was when I started this newsletter. It has only become a pressure because I have no buffer to work with and that I’m constantly waiting until the last minute to write (or edit) something to post here.

This is not healthy.

So.

I decided to break out of this spiral the same way I did in 2020. I sat at my laptop and stared at the screen until I started writing. And I set myself to do this every single day and stop procrastinating. I need to get my writing habit back. Once you have that, it gets much easier. Thing is, it’s also easy to lose. It’s okay to take breaks once in a while (assuming you’ve found your rhythm) but you can’t let that break drag on for too long—which is what happened here.

All this to say, I’ve been writing daily again for the past week and making good progress on various projects. Meaning things should get better and I’ll likely have a buffer again to work with on here—already started building one up for my other Substack (which is currently on pause, but it should relaunch soon).

Current goals are to write and publish a novel before Christmas, release another TV-related book, and complete volume #3 of my serial Through the Stars, Darkly.

In other news, those three “Anthologies of the Damned” I’ve mentioned before are now out and available on all of your favorite retail platforms! My contribution is in the Tome of Terrors volume.

Recently published stories

I am temporarily retiring the “Coming up this month” section until I’ve built back up my buffer. In the meantime, I’ll use this space to keep track of my recently released stories—outside of Substack, that is.

Hopefully, I’ll have more and more stuff to share here in the coming months. We shall see!

For the moment, here’s what’s been published since the beginning of the year:

• Tome of Terrors (horror anthology) — includes “The Waystation.”

• Laser Cannons & First Contact (space opera anthology) — with “The Battle of Braxia.”

• Time of the Champions (epic fantasy anthology) — three short stories as Steffen Larken.

If you like my writing, please consider buying a copy of my novel, upgrading to a paid subscription, or making a Paypal or Ko-fi donation. As an independent author, any of these would help a lot!

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Copyright (c) 2024 by Alex S. Garcia.