Recently, I spoke with a couple of fellow writers when we began discussing writer problems. I showed them my #WriterProblems series that I did almost a year ago, and then, I realized I never shared 10-15. I also realize many of you may not have seen the cards I made for writers back in the day, so you can read Writers Problems 1-5 and 6-10 by clicking the links. Below, I’m covering 11-15, and I hope you have as much fun with these as I do…even though they are writer problems. 😉
Writer Problems #11
Autocorrect. It Thinks It Knows Everything. 
I have this problem ALL THE TIME, particularly while writing The Tomo Trilogy. One of my characters actually is named Miles, and my laptop—despite my attempts to change the settings—insists on lowercasing his name because it’s a noun (not a proper noun). Don’t even get me started on invented words and names.
Writer Problems #12
Getting Too Attached To Writing Utensils 
Maybe it’s just me, but I treat my pens as a writer the way most readers treat their books. I do not lend them out, because they rarely make their way back to me. (And I buy expensive pens.) I know many writers use laptops nowadays, but I write a lot of my novels by hand before I type them up, so there’s a certain amount of familiarity for me when it comes to pens. I might even get upset when I have to throw one away, because—well—it helped me write chapters 1 through 20 in my latest WIP.
Writer Problems #13
Searching For Character Names
Picking the PERFECT name is hard enough. I mean, there is so much to consider. The background, the culture, the time period, the sound, or just the personality. Because of this, I am in love with surfing BabyNames.com. It’s one of my most visited websites. Even when I’m not writing something new, I’m browsing it, because who knows when I’ll need a new list of names to use? This has caused some interesting scenarios, including the one you see in my card. That actually happened while I was attending college. I was browsing BabyNames.com in between classes, and a girl stopped me to tell me congratulations. I gave her the strangest look (and actually replied “For what?”) She walked away like I was the strange one. It took me half a day to realize what transpired.
Writer Problems #14
Trying to Choose a Title 
Titling your work can be a difficult, maddening journey. Even though publishers often change titles, it’s nice to have a working one that feels complete or one that will catch an agent’s attention on a query letter. This issue is especially important for self-published authors, because, well, they literally have to choose it. Cue the madness. This could mean considering trends (like short titles when I made this or the longer, poetic titles now), or it could mean concentrating on symbols throughout your story. I actually wrote an article about this—Titling Your Novel—but the ironic part is that I wrote this article a LONG time ago, when Bad Bloods was called November Snow and when November Snow used to be called It’s Only a Matter of Time. (See? Those titles can get out of control.) I’ll have to rewrite that article soon.
Writer Problems #15
When The Coffee Runs Out 
Okay. So this card is a bit of an exaggeration, but…not really. It’s the symbolic version of what ACTUALLY happens in my head. I am a coffee addict, so without it, my writing brain wanders to places and scenarios and characters that have NOTHING to do with what I should be concentrating on. Hence the magical forest.
So how about you? What did these writer problems remind you of? Share your story below. Feel free to share and use these as well! On a side note, I could always continue to make these cards as well. Just let me know if that’s something you’d like!
~SAT
A little excerpt to start your week off:
“Do you think fate’s possible?” she asked, and I stiffened.
Fate was a reality, but it wasn’t a beautiful or angelic thing. It was a heart-wrenching nightmare. And we’d fallen blindly into it. We had no escape. It was happening, and it was up to me to guarantee our survival of it.
“Yes,” I said. “I think it’s very possible.”
She smiled and pulled me down to kiss me, even though I knew she wouldn’t if she understood the ramifications of it all. Her kiss could kill us, and my consent signed our death certificates, selfishly and without control.
Read Minutes Before Sunset, book 1, for FREE:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Smashwords, Kobo, Goodreads
Seconds Before Sunrise: book 2:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Smashwords, Kobo, Goodreads
Death Before Daylight: book 3:
Shannon A. Thompson 
So needed the laughter. 🙂
That baby book thing happened to me a lot in college and at a few jobs. Sometimes it was the same person only a week or two later that did it. I ended up writing ‘Character’ over the word ‘Baby’ at one point.
I don’t get attached to writing utensils, but I have (had) a favored stapler and I get protective of my notebooks. The one time I let my wife use the stapler, it broke in a way that it wouldn’t stay closed. Then a few years later she knocked it off a shelf and that ended it’s life. It was a cool standing stapler that was blue and kind of translucent. Last one in the college store and I got it. As for the notebooks, they’re usually safe. Except one time, my mother-in-law was visiting and tore a page out of a notebook I had left ‘too close’ to the phone. This would be across the room from the phone. I needed a walk after that.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! It’s funny how every writer has their nuances. 🙂
~SAT
12 & 15. So very 15.
15 is the worst! 😀
~SAT