At last! Writer willing to admit that Writers' Block is a Myth.

I've cracked it! After a year that was lousy, lifestyle wise, and well I won't even go to emotionally, I realised that 2016 was a horrible year because it disconnected me from what I usually draw from for my fiction writing.
Yeah, yeah you've heard it all before and so it may be. But for me, it is new. I've been writing now for a good few years but tonight it came home to me that what I felt throughout 2016 was not writers' block but writers' excuse. Should I patent this?
Yes, it has been a difficult year and it has been dismal but there were so many bright moments too that have I intentionally forgotten them?
Do we allow the negative to cloud our vision that we willingly forsake the good times?

This year is drawing to a close and I willingly admit to dragging my heels when it came to writing. I had every excuse in the book, (excuse the pun) to withdraw in to my hiding hole and let the world pass by.
But that is unfair. Unfair to those I love.  Whatever I am feeling, those who were directly involved in my misery where more deserving than me by a mile. I am only a side-line. It was easier to tell myself I could not write.
It is Christmas Eve. It is a wake-up call.
I could not write for most of this year due to family issues. I had writers' block. How convenient for me!
So I dabbled in short stories and flash fiction, just to keep my hand in there you see. Writer's never switch off, even if we do not admit to this. Although I had a sequel to finish for my publishers and also the editing of another novella for my patient and understanding publishers. I realised while suffering from writers' block, was, there is no such thing!!
Why? How?
Well, my head was so full of ideas, plot twists, character traits etc that I did not know where to start. So I realised, writers' block does not exist, it is when the writer's mind becomes overflowing with ideas that the reluctance to write seeps in.

Bochum Christmas Markets

So what did I do?
I wrote flash fiction, not just notes but little stories. I picked whatever story/character bugged me each night and took details and recorded them for a different but future time.

Bochum, Germany

I had acknowledged them in my head and they were happy.
It is an exciting time for me to share this with you as I edited and shared a piece that annoyed me for a few nights, ( most writers ideas come to them as they want to go to sleep) with an on-line USA magazine and it was accepted for publication and also entered into a contest they run.
So, my advice is, there is no such thing as writers' block only writers' overload.
AND treat that overload with respect, it may lead you to greater success!
Happy Christmas, love and hugs.

Mary T, xx