I’m writing again. At last.

After a hiatus, I’ve started to write again. I didn’t have a hiatus because I suffer from writer’s block. Writer’s block, as pursued in my story of the same name, is a state of mind. I either have something to write about or I don’t. While goals and targets are good, my creative process doesn’t follow a set of KPIs.

I started to write again because I wanted to write, or perhaps, I needed to write again. I can’t imagine stopping altogether. That would be like having part of my soul amputated.

Backstory... 2016 was a tough year, one of the toughest in my life. I’m not telling you to seek sympathy. It just was. Sometimes, that’s what life hands you. Sure, I finished several projects that had been simmering away, but I didn’t start anything new—save my short story The Bunker—which was written as a reaction to the events of 2016. This story has readers scared silly because it’s ALLEGORICAL! And worse, contains SYMBOLISM! Yes, I fully expect to receive a swathe of negative reviews for The Bunker for those reasons. I will not apologise for it. I don’t prescribe to the rationale that fiction is for entertainment alone.

The point is The Bunker is a deviation from the plot arc I had planned for my life. Stephen King makes the point in On Writing that it is a writer’s job to identify stories in the world around him (or her). The Bunker tells my story of 2016, identifying my state of mind through that year, even though the events of the story are fictitious. I can’t relate the real events behind the story, nor would I want to—and they wouldn’t make a very good piece of fiction either.

Oddly enough, Stephen King also sits behind the reason I started writing again. I listened to what he was saying about identifying opportunities for stories, in particular the one he floated as an example. No-one has written this story, so I thought I might have a go. Yesterday, I finished the first draft.

It feels good to be back.