Romy Sommer

I've finally sent off my revisions to my editor at The Wild Rose Press. I've submitted two short stories to the local Essentials magazine / Mills & Boon contest. So what's next? What should be next is my requested partial to Richmond. As the deadline I'd set myself to write a whole new novel has already come and gone, with nothing to show for it, I've now decided to revise the manuscript I subbed to the RNA's New Writers' Scheme last year and send that in ... but I just can't seem to get into that either. It's as though I have an itch beneath the skin. I can't reach it, but neither can I focus on anything, even at the day job. I'm on edge all the time and accomplishing nothing - unless messing around on Twitter can be counted as an achievement? Anyone have any suggestions on how I can get my focus back?

I have now started "Beneath the Ionian Sun" four times. Four different beginnings and I'm now so far behind my self-imposed schedule that I feel like crying. Why, you might wonder, is this so hard when I already had such a good grasp on my characters? I started Attempt #1 on a high and the words just flowed. I worked on that opening for three days. The story starts on Corfu, with a summer romance between hero and heroine. A brief encounter that both know will not last. Then the doubt set in. How could I hope to hook a reader (or an editor) with a story that opens with sunshine and roses? I needed more conflict! So I rewrote the beginning, starting at the moment of most dramatic conflict. Attempt #2 opens when the hero and heroine are thrown together months later and he discovers that she's pregnant ... and that she planned to keep it from him. Enter the next set of doubts. I've seen this opening done countless times. Where's the fresh twist I need to hoo...

On the radio recently I heard a piece about the composer Sergei Rachmaninov. Apparently, just before he composed his Symphony No. 2 in C Minor (one of my favourite pieces of classical music) he suffered from something known as “Nervous Insecurity” which prevented him from composing. He dedicated this symphony to the hypno-therapist who helped him get over it. In writing terms we call it “Writer’s Block”. I think I prefer the musical term because let’s face it, that is exactly what happens when we get writer’s block. Our insecurity keeps us from writing. I find a lot of hope in this story. After overcoming his block Rachmaninov went on to write perhaps the greatest piece of music of his career. May we all have such luck when we overcome our insecurities.