Stalled

I haven't written a damn thing in three days, and that is not because I haven't the time. It's just so hard to get moving.  Running in creative molasses is more like it.  Wooden words, weak phrasing, unstructured rambling paragraphs.  What is going on?

Is this what writer's block feels like?  I've half a dozen stories in the final stages of editing and seem unable to move forward on any of them.  Let's see, I have finished rewriting the novel - and am still plagued with "Hey, why don't we change this?" thoughts that prevent me from moving forward.  I have novelette that is stuck on resolution, three short stories that still need rearrangements, and one that is finished but just doesn't feel quite ready to be released.  All told, I have about twenty-four pieces lying about, crying to be finished.

I thought this was bad until I talked to Michael Swanwick who admitted that he, master of the form that he is, always seems to have more than forty uncompleted works polluting his workspace. I am such a piker in comparison.

Whenever I got stalled before I'd gather some old stories together, put them in Kindle format, and upload the collection to the Kindle store.  Just did that and it didn't help a bit. Not only that, but eventually I'll run out of previously published stories to put into collections.  What then - upload a few of my unsold (and unedited) novels to see how they meet the brutal reality of the reading public?  At this point it doesn't seem likely that sale to someone who might publish print editions is likely, not with the current state of the industry.

So why can't I move forward?  What is holding back the creative juices? Should I worry about it or not?  Indecisions sucks!

But so does lack of progress.