I'm in a special history program (well, not anymore, but I was) and we interview people about a particular topic and turn it into articles for our annual publication. It took me four months to sit down and turn my first transcript into a draft. And then later, another interviewee's article took me three days. It's frustrating when you feel like you have things to say and no way to say them. That's how I get sometimes. I have to say, if you feel blocked on fiction, perhaps all of this non-fiction (your LJ) could help. When I feel particularly like a bad writer, I just think of something interesting that happened to me in the past week and write it down until it's interesting to someone else.

And if all else fails, the book that made me want to pick up a pen and write something great was "Last Watch of the Night" by Paul Monette.

-M