WRITER’S BLOCK.

I always boasted I never got writers block. Karma must be charging me retribution. Since I published Junie Moon Rising in April, I haven’t had a writing thought in my head. I have tried analyzing the ‘why’ of this.

Is it because I have wasted so much time on the internet, trying to indirectly promote my books by chatting with cyber friends? If so, it hasn’t worked as my sequel has not taken off with a rousing start. I’ve had one KDP give-away and it was my worst ever. I have no explanation as I did nothing different.

Actually, I do not have a huge internet following and I try to stay in touch with as much regularity as possible with my followers. Bloggers with thousands of followers must find it impossible. Therefore, they would be termed ‘followers’ NOT ‘friends’. I tend to find friends which makes it more personal. This does not, however, help book sales a great deal. Sales come from numbers.The secret to followers must be to blog more AND write with more wit and wisdom.

The time spent on the internet has increased since I’m not writing. In fact, I feel that I waste hours a day, looking for answers there. It has to stop and writing has to start again. But how?

I still enjoy attending my writers group twice a month but I have no new material to read. I still, from habit, wake up at 4 am each day, but I do not rush to the computer, brimming over with thoughts I’m anxious to record. In fact, those quiet, early mornings I loved now feel desolate. Winter is here and it is cold and dark. I don’t want to leave my cozy electric blanket but I’m awake and can’t go back to sleep.

The trouble is, I don’t know what I want to write next, or even if I want to write. I’ve written my life story up until I started adopting the children, I’ve always said I didn’t want to invade my children’s privacy by writing about them. Besides, there are many books out there about adoptions.

My one embryonic glimmer of any story is a comedy. After my children were grown I started doing antique shows, touring the East Coast of Australia while selling American vintage costume jewelry. I had a good supply of this for awhile. It was left over from my Seattle days when I owned the exotic and beautiful ‘Diamond Lil’s’ on 1st Avenue in downtown Seattle (my favorite city.) The jewelry is gone now and you don’t find much decent vintage, costume jewelry in Australia so I don’t do that regularly these days, preferring to write.

While doing those shows, you meet the same antiques dealers repeatedly and many of them make good book material. I have had a faint outline for the story in my mind for a few years. The stumbling blocks are these.

A. Will readers find my writing funny?

B. Is it possible to change book genre and not lose your followers?

C. How do I overcome this block and ‘give it a go?’

ANY SUGGESTIONS, ANYONE?