Overcoming Writer's Block - The Bell, It Rings

Today, April 30th, 2025, I finished writing a short story. I started writing that short story in December of 2023. Why did it take me a year and a half to write a short story? I'll tell you.

In December of 2023 I started writing a short story called "The Bell, It Rings". There were two things on my mind when I started writing this story. First, I was struggling with my self-image as a father. Second, I really wanted to write a story about a witch. I'm sure it isn't all that uncommon for parents to question their abilities when their children are misbehaving, or their grades aren't what they could be or they just aren't putting in the effort they are capable of. Nobody is perfect, especially me, when it comes to being a father. I wanted to write a story about a father who takes his son on a trip, just the two of them, so that they could connect and hopefully come out on the other side with an improved relationship and with the dad having imparted all of his fatherly wisdom in such a way that the son was going to turn his attitude around. Essentially, it was meant to be a story about the triumph of the father, because I was trying to reassure myself that I was a good parent.

As far as the witch part goes, I've always been a big fan of the movie Hocus Pocus. I think witches are cool and I hadn't even written a story about a witch. That's about as deep as that goes. Now we delve into my writing process. When it comes to short stories, I don't do a lot of outlining or planning. I sit down, and I hit the gas pedal, and I floor it until I run out of gas. The problem with that is, I never know how full the tank is when I get in. If the tank is full, I write from beginning to end. Boom, story. It will still need polishing and editing and sometimes a lot of rewriting, but as long as the whole idea is out, we are good to go. That doesn't always happen. In fact, more often than not, I'm dealing with a half a tank or less. I will write and write and write and then I will hit a point where the idea sputters out and I find myself stranded on the side of the road in the dark hoping shadowy figures don't start chasing me (See "What Waits on Back Roads", available in the collection "Restful Sleep and Other Nightmares" available now on Amazon.com...wink).

That happened with "The Bell, It Rings". I ran out of gas, and when that happens, I drop the story, and I walk away from it. If the creative part of my brain loses interest in the story, there isn't anything I can do right in the moment. If I try to force it, what comes out the other side will be gooey and icky, and I'll just end up deleting it anyway. In this particular case, I picked the story up again at some point between December 2023 and April 2025 and wrote more, but I ran out of gas then too! The problem I've had for the last seven months or so, since I released "Restful Sleep and Other Nightmares", is that I REALLY wanted to include this story in my follow-up collection. It is the only story on the short list for that collection that wasn't "finished". I put "finished" in quotes because many of the other stories still needed a lot of work. I have opened the Word Document so many times over the past seven months with the intention of finishing that story, but I started reading it and would close it because I just wasn't feeling it. I got to the point where I almost pulled it from the list and started going back through other stories to find a replacement, but then something happened today. That spark, it came back.

I started thinking about the story and why I started writing it in the first place. I realized that, as a father, I'm a completely different person now than I was a year and a half ago. A lot happens in a year and a half! I'm a more confident person overall now. I published my first book and I'm marketing it as much as my stomach can tolerate. I've learned a lot about parenting and about kids and about discipline. I decided to force myself just to read the last third of the story which included an italicized paragraph at the end with notes to myself for the next time I worked on it. I learned two things. First, I had made it way further than I thought I did the last time I worked on it. This was one of my longer short stories, and I was basically right up against the final conflict and climax of the story! The other thing I learned is that my original intent for this story (the triumphant father thing, not the I like witches thing) was completely WRONG. Looking at this story through my current eyes, I had to chastise myself for being so selfish. It is not my goal as a father to succeed for my own sense of self. It is my goal as a father to put my kids in a position to succeed so that THEY can gain self-confidence!

With this new lens, I found the ending I wanted. This was no longer going to be about a father's triumph in his ability to connect and speak wisdom to his son. It was going to be about the son saving the day and gaining the confidence he needs to CARE about being a good person and putting in effort and doing all the things. Also, the witch ended up being a ghost...I don't know, sometimes these stories take on a life of their own. I sat down, and out came the rest of the story. It needs some polish, but I'm really happy with it.

So, what do I have to say about overcoming writers block when those creative juices stop flowing? There is a reason. If you are a writer, listen to what your subconscious is trying to tell you. Maybe you just aren't ready to write that story yet. Maybe the experiences that will feed that story haven't happened yet. But they're coming. Don't be afraid to put the story away for a bit and continue living. After all, our experiences in life are what form our perspective at any given point, and a new perspective might be just what you need.