Finding Enough Words for a Dozen Book Projects

There’s a reason for getting stuck and not being able to move forward in writing a book. And that is the assumption that we are self-sufficient in producing literary works.

We can appreciate the problem if we compare the work of writing to a factory making goods. Production in a factory stops for various reasons. One possibility is the lack of an essential raw material. Writing work, like a factory, needs a steady supply of raw materials.

Ideas and information are the essential raw materials for writing work. And there are different forms of ideas and information. Some types of ideas and information contained within a book are quotations, explanations, arguments, narratives, descriptions, questions, statistics, etc.

The assumption that we are self-sufficient as to the raw materials needed for writing a book is the primary cause of work stoppage (i.e., writer’s block). If you are not drowning in a huge inventory of ideas and information, you don’t have enough raw materials. With this in mind, an aspiring writer should realize that productivity in writing work is more of a logistics problem than a lack of creativity, imagination or skill.