Today UK dark fiction author Naomi Clark hijacks my blog to talk about her latest novel “Dark Hunt” and offers some an interesting take on the perils of writer’s block
The Book I Didn’t Write
When I started work on Urban Wolf book 2, I knew exactly what I was going to write. I had a title (Bad Dogs). I had a plot (details not included – I might still use them elsewhere!). And, for a while, I had the first two chapters. I’d left some loose ends dangling in book 1, SILVER KISS, and I thought I’d use book 2 to wrap them up.
But then I got about five thousand words in and stalled completely. Every time I started working on the sequel, I hit a wall. I’ve never really had writer’s block before (I’m not entirely sure I believe in it), and I was stumped as to what had me stuck. I love these characters and their world, and I had a pretty good plot mapped out, so what was holding me up?
The answer is simple. I was bored.
My own writing was boring me. I wasn’t engaged with the plot I’d been so certain I wanted to write. And if I wasn’t engaged, how could I ask readers to get engaged? There’s a quote by Frank Robinson – “Be anything you want to be, but don’t be dull.” I was being dull. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why I was bored but the fact was, Bad Dogs just wasn’t working for me.
So I wrote DARK HUNT instead. Now, I’d had this plot in mind for a while and I thought maybe it would be book 4 or 5 in the series. But I’d just come home from a holiday in Paris, the city was fresh in my mind, and given France’s rich trove of werewolf folklore, it seemed the ideal location for my new plot. I scrapped the five thousand words or so I had of Bad Dogs and started DARK HUNT. It was the right decision. Suddenly I was excited again! It was a challenge to take the characters I’d established in SILVER KISS and uproot them to take them to Paris, and I enjoyed translating my experiences of the city into the novel and making them Ayla and Shannon’s.
Will I ever write Bad Dogs? I honestly don’t know. I still like parts of the plot I had in mind, and maybe later in the series I’ll find a place for them. In the mean time, I hope everyone enjoys reading DARK HUNT as much as I enjoyed writing it!
We’re giving away plenty of swag in the DARK HUNT blog tour (http://tiny.cc/drkhunttour). There are daily ebook giveaways and hampers of goodies up for grabs at the grand finale of the tour including ebooks, limited DARK HUNT t-shirts, personal horoscopes and tarot readings by Naomi Clark, as well as postcards from Ayla, Shannon, Vince, Joel and Glory (urban wolf series characters). Leave a comment here (ask me a question; tell me about the books that have excited you (or just say hello!) with your email address to be entered. Enter at each point along the tour for more entries and more chances to win.
Naomi Clark lives in Cambridge and is a mild-mannered office worker by day, but a slightly crazed writer by night. Her novels include Afterlife and Demonized. Her short fiction has appeared in ezines from Midnight Times to Dark Fire Fiction. You can find her on the web at www.naomijay.blogspot.com
Darkscrybe 
Congrats on getting past the block to eventually find Dark Hunt, Naomi! It sounds great 🙂
Hey Naomi,
Great title for a werewolf novel, Bad Dogs, and I hope we get to read it someday.
quinnsmythwood(AT)gmail(.)com
Thanks, guys!
I'm excited for the grand prize 🙂 The book seems cool! Hope I get a chance to read it *fingers crossed*
Email: osnapitzAngiex3(AT)aol(DOT)com
Wow…that must have been hard to start over after getting so far into Bad Dogs. Who knows…maybe some of the other pieces will show up else where.
heatwave96(at)hotmail.com
Was there anything in particular you did to try and overcome your writer's block before you moved on to a new storyline?
acm05atjuno.com
Hi Anne. The only thing I really had to do was make myself delete everything I already had for Bad Dogs. I knew if I kept the file, I'd keep going back to it and trying to make it work. Once it was gone, I had no option but to start over.