Late Morning, Thursday, January 30, 2025, Miami, Florida
“Writer’s block results from too much head. Cut off your head. Pegasus, poetry, was born of Medusa when her head was cut off. You have to be reckless when writing. Be as crazy as your conscience allows.” ― Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
If Tuesday was a frustrating, depressing, and unproductive day for me, yesterday afternoon was its dazzling opposite. I sat at my desk, fired up Microsoft Word, and, as if by magic, banished “writer’s block” from my writing room. Inspired, I crafted an outline for the third scene in Chapter 24 of my novel, Reunion: Coda.
Even more incredible, I rode that wave of creativity and whipped out a complete first draft of the scene—narration, action, sensory details, and dialogue, all in one go!
I’m not sure if this burst of inspiration came from the scenarios I studied in How to Write a Romance: Or, How to Write Witty Dialogue, Smoldering Love Scenes & Happily-Ever-Afters[1], the blessed lack of distractions, or sheer desperation to get something on the page. And, really, who cares? The important thing is that I got shit done yesterday.
Scene Three seamlessly picks up where Scene Two left off, making my writing flow effortlessly. Interestingly, I often face writer’s block between scenes—a consequence of my “pantser” style. This approach, where I don’t outline every detail in advance, sometimes leaves me pondering the question, “What happens next?” for longer periods, especially at the end of a chapter.
Scene Three, fresh from yesterday’s fervent revisions – four, to be exact – is a sharp, compelling piece that wastes no time. At a brisk 489 words, it’s shorter than your typical college English essay, which certainly added to the ease of its creation.
With a triumphant flourish, I checked Microsoft Word: Reunion: Coda now boasts 510 pages and a staggering word count of 124,570. Admittedly, this includes the title page, the disclaimer/copyright page, and the epigraph page, but I’m still astounded. My earlier attempts at writing a novel never made it past Chapter Three, and now, here I am, poised at the crescendo of Chapter 24! It feels utterly surreal, like a dream I’ve long chased but never caught until now.
I still need to take my usual midday break and have some lunch before I come back to grapple with Scene Four, but I’m feeling cautiously optimistic that I’ll get shit done today, too.
[1] Currently, the only physical “how to” book about writing that is not in a moving box is How to Write a Romance, even though Reunion: Coda falls more into the General Fiction category of literature.
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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