Fancy reading a story about an author who could not finish his or her own work? There are indeed novels other than The Shining by Stephen King that deals with characters, mostly writers and authors, who stop writing or stop producing anything that seems to them worth publishing. In other cases, they simply stop writing what they want to write. What are the reasons for the creative slowdown or shutdown? Are you struggling with writer’s block?
ReadersMagnet recommends the following books about characters with writer’s block.
- Home For Good by Gerald James Avila
Home For Good by Gerald Avila is a novel about a well-known writer who struggles to complete a manuscript after the death of his wife and fellow writer, Marilyn. Jeff Williams becomes seriously “blocked” from being able to work on his manuscript about the joys of his marriage due to the loss of Marilyn, that he hurls his typewriter from the window. When a close friend suggests that he sees a therapist to cure his writer’s block, Jeff sees Dr. Joan Steele. When her conventional methods of psychiatric treatment fail to cure Jeff’s grief, she tries an unorthodox treatment method that eventually works. Both Jeff and Joan are surprised at the results as together they slowly and carefully move past turmoil and fall into love.
- Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
A socially critical novel first published in 1936, Keep the Aspidistra Flying is set in London in the 1930s and surrounds around the life of Gordon Comstock, who despises the empty commercialism and materialism of middle-class life. He ‘declares war’ on what he sees as an ‘overarching dependence’ on money by leaving a promising job as a copywriter for an advertising company and instead, taking a low-paying job as a bookseller’s assistant, so he can write poetry. Gordon struggles in vain to complete an epic poem describing a day in London, which he plans to call “London Pleasures”. After some time of wallowing in abject failure and poverty, he abandons his anti-money principles and reconciles himself to bourgeois prosperity by marrying his girlfriend and resuming his job, which he once deplored, at the advertising company. He then throws “London Pleasures” down a drain.
- Wonder Boys: A Novel by Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon’s critically acclaimed sophomore effort was published in 1995. The novel tells the story of a professor and author Grady Tripp, who is working on a 2,600-plus endlessly revised manuscript as a follow-up to his successful, award-winning novel that was published seven years earlier. Tripp struggles with what seems to be writer’s block, though he says that he “had too much to write”. His editor, Terry Crabtree, patiently endures Tripp’s writer’s block and participates in college-sponsored writers and publishers’ weekend to wrench Tripp’s long overdue manuscript to see if there is anything that is worth publishing. Tripp has other problems. His wife, Emily, lefts him, and his mistress, the married college chancellor Sara Gaskell, is pregnant with his child. He abuses marijuana too. To top it all, Tripp finds himself involved in a bizarre crime committed by one of his students, the college’s newest potential ‘wonder boy’ James Leer.
- Writer’s Block by Hank Garner
Published in 2016, Writer’s Block revolves around Stu Remington, a successful novelist who finds himself stuck with completing the final book of his best-selling trilogy. He has a deadline looming and is out of ideas on how to proceed with his story. Looking for inspiration, Stu turns to an old typewriter to write a nonsense story – that comes true the next day. Stu is set upon to not only cure his writer’s book but also face the demons lurking all around him. He is joined in this unlikely adventure by his faithful dog Rolo, Debby and her young daughter Ashley, and a host of other characters that cross his path.
- Joe Gould’s Secret by Joseph Mitchell
Published in 1965, Joe Gould’s Secret details the true story of Joe Gould, the American eccentric who claims to be the author of the longest book ever written. The book is based on the author’s two profiles in the New Yorker magazine. Gould suffered from writer’s block, who appeared to others to be taking notes but, in fact, was just rewriting the same few chapters. His writings deal with seemingly trivial events in his early life. He had filled countless notebooks with edited versions of these events.
- The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers
Written and illustrated by German author Walter Moers and released in 2004, The City of Dreaming Books is the fourth novel in the six-book Zamonia series. The novel tells the journey of protagonist/narrator Optimus Yarnspinner, a young writer who inherits from his godfather an unpublished short story – a perfect story – by an unknown author. His search for the author’s identity takes him to Bookholm, a city that contains many valuable books, as well as monsters and perils. It is in Bookholm where Yarnspinner learns the art of inspired writing. After his adventure, he becomes a best-selling author.
- Bag of Bones by Stephen King
Published in 1998, the horror novel Bag of Bones focuses on the protagonist/narrator Mike Noonan, an author who suffers from severe writer’s block after the death of his pregnant wife in a road accident. The novel Mike is working on provides clues to the documents his wife had hidden pertaining to the mysterious deaths of people whose names begin with the letters “K” or “C”.
- The Plague by Albert Camus
Published in 1947, The Plague tells about the plague that swept the French Algerian city of Oran and is told from the point of view of an unknown narrator. One of the characters, Joseph Grand, can rarely find the correct words to express what he means and, being a perfectionist, stalls on his book. After he recovers from the plague, he finally writes to his estranged wife and makes a fresh start on his book.
Happy reading! May you have the best of luck in curing your writer’s luck!
Oliver’s Twist 