This week we have author Mickey J Corrigan. She talks about Just Do It. She also has a new book out, Me Go Mango.

Originally from Boston, Mickey J. Corrigan writes tropical noir with a dark humor. Novels include Project XX about a school shooting (Salt Publishing, UK, 2017) and What I Did for Love, a spoof of Lolita (Bloodhound Books, UK, 2019).

Social media links:

www.mickeyjcorrigan.com

http://mickeyjcorrigan.tumblr.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/Mickey_J_Corrigan

 

This is a difficult post to write. I'm struggling here, so I must be doing something wrong. Maybe I need more coffee? Or should I change my location, sit outside in the fresh air instead of inside this stuffy office? What if I revert to old form and write in a notebook in pencil first, then transcribe on my laptop? Seems as if I need to meditate on the subject for a bit, get inspired. Or something.

And what happened to the muse? Seems like she's fled. Or is relying on a fickle muse a bad idea?

Not sure about you, but I like to avoid these kinds of inner conflicts when I'm writing. I prefer to plan out the time I will need, sit down at my desk, and hammer it out. But that doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes, I get in my own way.

In the various writing groups I've attended over the years, we've often discussed issues like this. The sudden lack of motivation, prolonged writer's blocks, and protracted periods of unproductivity. My solution to these problems was always the same: do whatever works to get back to work. But I've met folks in these groups who have been working on a single book project for a decade. Or longer! These are people who really cannot get out of their own way. Nothing works.

The truth is, there is no right way, no secret to being a productive writer. There's just AIC, ass in chair, and GID, get it done. Excuses are normal, procrastination is human, but a book can only be published after it has been written from start to finish. Whatever stops the supply chain of your creative mind can be as simple as feeling lazy or as deep-seated as a profound fear of failure—or of success. You can worry yourself sick, you can try to outwit yourself. You can bemoan the muse or blame your environment, upbringing, lifestyle, partner, kids. You'd like to start/finish that writing project but, well, you just don't have the time.

So yes, there are all sorts of ways to stay stuck. But none of that matters, not ultimately. There's no right way to be a writer, there's no muse to save you from your unproductive self, there's no solution to not writing—except to just do it. Just write.

To quote John Steinbeck: "If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he [or she] feels is important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he [or she] may sometimes, but by no means always, find the way to do it."

 

 

Me Go Mango Anthology: Two Women Find Their Bad Selves 
Two novellas in one fun anthology: a group of college friends revisit their past, and a young woman gets a job that launches her into a very surprising future. Who doesn’t want a chance to rewrite their past?

ME GO MANGO
Erin Monahan reformed her bad girl ways, only to discover the good girl act can’t save her marriage. Hiding out in a love hotel with a bottle of Two Buck Chuck, she calls for reinforcements. Her college friends organize a weekend reunion in small town Vermont.

Ellen has money from suspicious sources. Maggie seems perfect, but she's got a big dark secret. And Sandy's a mess—plus she's hiding something. When Ellen proposes the four of them go in on a business venture, a retreat for middle-aged bad girls, Erin thinks she’s crazy.

Then Erin meets Roberto, a hot Cuban chef. Soon she decides she doesn’t want the mango to end.

DREAM JOB
After Adrianna sleeps with her hunky boss, she has to face him every day at the office. She has to test the company’s software with him in the office hot tub. She has to ignore the fact that she’s fallen madly in love with him—but is her infatuation only a dream?

To make Adrianna's life in tropical Florida even more confusing, Davis, a geeky guy from her past, is stalking her—but only in the murky dream world they appear to share.

Something strange is happening to Adrianna. And it’s making her wonder about her dreams. Could it be that dreams are the entry way to another world? A real world? A hyperreal world?

Available from Amazon and Champagne Books.