12 Book-Blockers and How to Hurdle Them

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. BookBaby, a 2015 Camp NaNoWriMo sponsor, asked their president, Steven Spatz, to share twelve obstacles that often stand in writers’ ways for your identifying purposes:

I’ll be honest: I wondered what I could possibly add to the many helpful and educational posts here on the NaNoWriMo blog that inspire thousands of eager writers on a daily basis.

And then it came to me—how about a post filled with my own cautionary tales? And so, NaNoWriMo fans, I present to you the flip side of the coin:

Block that book! Twelve diabolical, evil, and just plain awful things that prevent you from finishing your book (if you let them).

All of these roadblocks are based on true-life experience: namely mine, as I labored to finish my first book, The End. Now What?! 6 Steps to Take Your Manuscript to Marketplace in 6 Weeks: 

Your boss. Many of you have at least one day job, and a boss to go with it. I share your pain. If only mine knew how much more fulfilled I would be as an employee if I were writing my book during office hours instead of filling in Excel spreadsheets.
Your bills. Directly related to the boss factor. That book-blocking day job really is useful for providing the funds for things like pizzas, coffee, co-pays for psychiatric therapy to discuss your book project, and more. Take it from me, your cable company will not accept a free chapter of your upcoming book in lieu of your HBO subscription. Which leads to…
Game of Thrones. Or House of Cards. Or any one of the recent plague of addictive programs that now competes for your precious time. Just like the creator of the atomic bomb and the selfie stick, the person who invented the concept of “binge watching” had no idea of the damage they would inflict upon humanity.
Children. I have two wonderful kids, AKA time-suckers who share my last name. Now that they’re college age, I really thought their presence as subversive book blockers would diminish. Nope. Yesteryear’s cry of “I need my diaper changed” merely progresses to high decibel shrieks of  "I need money for gas/tuition/bail.“ Different crap, same distraction.
Internet. Oh thine world wide web, your siren song is so sweet and alluring. It used to be cat videos, Angry Birds, and MySpace. Now it’s Twitter, Instagram, Tinder, and whatever else was invented and went viral in the 14 hours since I wrote this post.
Social life. Studies illustrate the harmful effects of solitary confinement. Doing hard time with your book can be just as bad, so there’s good science behind the need to get out and be around people. But the danger! It’s a disaster waiting to happen for your book.
Mrs. White. She was my hyper-critical high school English teacher who never met an essay she didn’t bleed red ink all over. We all have someone like her. It might be your perfectionist spouse, or your cousin Harry who reminds you he’s a former book editor every chance he gets. These people can cause you to second guess every word you type.
Mother Nature. Frankly, I have no clue how any books are ever published in California, Florida, or other places where the sun shines and average snowfall is under 28 inches. Fully 95% of my book was written during the months of January through March. (avg. temperature in Philadelphia: -14º).
Other books. Memo to talented writers: When I’m in the process of writing my next book, kindly refrain from publishing any new material. (That goes double for you, Hugh Howey.) Not only do I get sucked into their stories, I start to compare my own writing (I call it: blunt force word blacksmithing) to their flowing prose. Depression follows. Sleep. It does a body good, usually. My nightmares are full of bad grammar and Mrs. White and her red ink pen.Eating. This is where my vow of "never eat drive-thru” is severely challenged.
Exercise. Vigorous typing doesn’t register on my Fitbit.

That’s it—my dirty dozen of obstacles. Now comes the time where most NaNoWriMo blog posts provide some answers to the challenges raised above. So very briefly:

1 & 2 – Buy lottery tickets. Win big. 
3 & 5 – Unplug. 
4 – Adoption… it’s never too late. 
6 & 7 – Embrace your inner hermit.
8 – Move to northwest Minnesota, Moosejaw, or anywhere in Maine.
9-12 – I got nothing.

No, I can’t really help you with these all-too-common issues of daily life. Instead I’d like to end this guest post with a huge round of applause for those who have done it: They’ve managed to tiptoe through the minefield of life’s distractions and come through with a finished manuscript. You really can do it. Heck, I did it once and I’m determined to make it through again.

Steven Spatz is President of BookBaby. From eBook conversion, print on demand, cover design, and book distribution, BookBaby provides independent authors the services and solutions to get self-published. The BookBaby Blog features hundreds of posts to get you motivated to write, publish, and stay on top of the ever-changing world of self-publishing.

Read the book Steven managed to write, despite the obstacles. BookBaby is offering a free eBook download of The End. Now What?! 6 Steps to Take Your Manuscript to Marketplace in 6 Weeks . It’s available free for a limited time.