STUCK....

I'm stuck.  I've submitted seven times since Hindman.  All with the expected results.  So, I have one story I've been told by several people is ready to be "out there", and no where I can find to place it.  I have another story which I thought was ready but have since changed my mind and don't have a clue how to fix it.  November is just over a week away, and I'm still not sure what novelling pursuit I'm going to attempt.  I also know from experience, if I don't start thinking about next summer's writing workshops, I'm going to be crunching at the last moment and will be very unsatisfied with what I have to send.  I want nothing more than to be writing and submitting right now, but I'm stuck.

Several people have suggested that I read.  Well, that's like suggesting I breathe, blink, or otherwise simply continue to live, but OK.  The last two books I've read have been horrible.  Absolutely atrocious.  What's more, they are essentially in the genre I consider to be my fall back.  If I don't like, enjoy, or understand the genre, how can I possibly write, publish, or succeed in the genre?  I've always just considered myself to be an Appalachian writer.  How come I don't like the other Appalachian literature I've been reading?

Another suggestion was to pursue a weekly writing prompt.  Well, I joined a group that does that.  As mentioned earlier, I started pursuing a new style of writing at Hindman this year, and everyone who's read my work in that format has said they are impressed and feel I have a knack for it.  So, I joined the group.  Here's the deal, I'm just not sure I get it.  The prompts come out, I get an idea, but can't make it work in this new style that I'm "just so good at".  My writing is just different from that.

I understand this is how things are "supposed" to work.  I realize I'm supposed to get stuck, and then I'm supposed to work to get myself unstuck.  I'm supposed to be submitting.  I'm supposed to be writing.  I'm supposed to be ready when the deadlines to apply to workshops come.  Supposed, supposed, supposed... it starts to sound funny when you say it over and over like that.  Stuck, stuck, stuck.... it doesn't sound like anything other than stuck when you say it over and over like that.