Yes. A much longer answer:

Louis L’Amour, who wrote westerns the way Heinlein wrote s-f juveniles, used to boast that he could write anywhere.

I took this as a challenge and tried to do the same.

I’ve now found that I prefer to spend at least part of my day in a coffee shop (Starbucks) in the company of other people.

I used to use a library but they don’t serve cool coffee.

The energy of people around, the ability to take a quick reality break, are both very useful for me.

However, some conversations and the Starbucks muzak can be too much for me, so I usually slip on my own headphones and listen to something instrumental, mostly Tangerine Dream (occasionally, Fresh Aire).

I don’t. I usually do both those things, get very mad with myself, discover that there was a reason for doing what I’d done, and get back on track. There are many schools of thought on what makes a writer but one says that writing is letting your “inner child” out to doodle. If that school of thought is correct, then there will be times when you just have to let your creative self doodle and wait patiently for good stuff to come.I remember when I was working in software there was this tremendous pressure to produce. “Be creative!” management would shout. How can you be creative? It’s a state of mind, not something that is turned on or off at will.

Writer’s block comes in many forms for me.There’s mid-book writer’s block, there’s the “everything I write is (insert appropriate expletive)” writer’s block, there’s the “huh?” writer’s block.

The trick is to figure out which one I’m suffering from.

I have found myself blocked for weeks at a time only to discover that I hadn’t made a particular connection so what I was about to write would be *wrong*. A case in point, Dragonsblood deals both with the First Pass and the Third Pass on Pern. I couldn’t get something written in the First Pass part of the book and I couldn’t figure out why — until I re-read Dragonseye and discovered that in the First Pass the Harper Hall was always College and there were no Harpers, only teachers and students. So, I’d blocked for a good reason.

Mid-book writer’s block is usually a case of either get lost along the way or of allowing your own internal “editor” to start criticizing the book. This is a variant of the “everything I write is (insert appropriate expletive” writer’s block. I find that the best way to get through it is to remind myself that I either write or find a new job. Usually I end up spending a certain amount time looking for a new job and then I realize that I really like the job I have, so I force myself back to work — end of block.

The “huh?” writer’s block may be a combination of the other two or simply a masked version of a “mid-book” or “expletive” block. I usually get around it by trying the other two solutions until something works.

In almost all cases, a writer’s block for me is a good thing. It gives my subconscious time to deal with problems that have been raised by my conscious. It is always frustrating but that’s part of the price we pay to be writers.

Firstly, you should know Bill Fawcett – that seems to always help! 🙂

Seriously, though, the rules for getting published are:

1) Write it.
2) Finish it.
3) Edit it.
4) Send it out.
5) Repeat steps 1-4 until you get a check.

Remember that you’re competing for fewer than one thousand book spots a year amongs goodness knows how many hundreds of thousands or millions of books. Don’t expect your first book to sell (mine’s still sitting in a trunk somewhere, alongside the next three).

Read in the genre you want to write. And read outside the genre, as well. In fact, read, read, read. But you have to have a good idea of what’s been done already — no one really wants to read the ninth rip-off of “The Lord of the Rings.” Or Harry Potter.

Remember that if you want to be sell, your work has to be better than what’s out there already.

You have to put your heart and soul into what you’re writing. If you aren’t crying when you’re writing your saddest scene, your readers won’t be crying either — and that seen-everything editor won’t even twitch.

My mother said, “You’re a writer because you can’t not write.” If you’re writing for fame or fortune, you’ll be disappointed. There are many very talented writers out there who just weren’t lucky enough to have their books published at a time when the reading public was looking for that type of book.

Study the craft of writing. Know what’s good punctuation, definitely know what is manuscript format. Don’t bother putting pretty covers on things — the art department of the publishing house is responsible for the cover.

Be prepared for rejection. I have a friend who kept all his rejection letters in a book — the book was over an inch and a half thick before he got his first acceptance letter.

You might consider joining a writer’s group. If so, look for a group that has learned the art of constructive criticism — desctructive criticism or being “nice” will do nothing for you. You can even submit works on-line, check out critters.org. Or Clarion, Clarion West, or Odyssey which offer intensive multi-week writing workshops (boot camp, if you will).

Finally, don’t give up the day job until your writing income exceeds your day job income — and you’ve got contracts that’ll keep you fed for a number of years.