New Non-Scientific Information About Not Good Enough Syndrome

By Andrew E. Kaufman, author of psychological thrillers 

I’m reaching a point in my current manuscript where I feel as though I’m starting to get a handle on things.

Well, that’s a relative term.

One never truly has a handle on things when one suffers from what is known as Not Good Enough Syndrome. You may have heard of this affliction. It’s non-specific, widely undocumented, and for the most part, difficult to diagnose.

Symptoms may include:

• Self doubt
• Self-loathing
• Second-guessing everything.
• Not liking anything.
• Lack of inspiration, ideas, or sanity.
• Isolated episodes of global panic (with intermittent aspirations of world-building).
• Private, self-contained tantrums, which can range in severity.

 And there are subcategories, and of course, I have a few of those as well. Currently I’m in the throes of, There Aren’t Enough Damned Twists in this Book! (Yes! There is an actual exclamation point at the end! A demarcation of severity!)

Here are how my symptoms express themselves: If you have a thriller, then you’ve got to have twists. The problem—at least for me—is they never come easily. Hard as I try, I’m never able to simply think those up. Usually, they must arrive on their own terms.  What this means is, there’s a lot of waiting. Some non-secular praying to nobody in particular. Perhaps what might even resemble a highly specialized, ancient ritual (translation: A lot of stomping and often loud, nonverbal communication).

This is my process, and as weird as it might be, and as hard as I’ve tried to change it, I’ve come to accept that I can’t.  In some ways, I suppose, this has benefits, because it doesn’t often allow me the luxury of resting on my laurels—that’s another condition known as, Good Enough Syndrome (or in the layman’s vernacular, Just Plain Lazy).

So, what’s the prognosis? The treatment? How does one manage such seemingly unmanageable symptoms? After years of intensive study and observation, I’ve found a few tactics.  Just in case you, or someone you love, suffers, I’ll share my detailed and highly non-scientific findings:

• Allow the ideas and words to come, and DON’T PANIC when they won’t—they will. They always do.
• Know that the harder the struggle (and if you don’t give up) the better the work.
• Never (Never!) compare your work to someone else’s. You are not them, and they are not you. Doing this will only take you to the Dark Place. I’ve been there. Trust me, It’s ugly.
• Exercise will clear the cobwebs and help hasten the muse.
• Externalizing your thought process is like breathing fresh air. It can be as easy has having someone sit and listen while you ramble on.
• Music can stir the emotions and ignite ideas in ways few other things can.
• Understand that anxiety will distort things and take you to Crazy Town.  Another ugly place.
• When you’ve reached a clear impasse, it’s time to stop.
• Don’t forget why you write.

Back to work for me.

Onward, brave soldiers.

Does Size Matter?

Written by Teresa Burrell

Author of The Advocate Series

The answer is that sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. We all know the real issue is quality, not quantity. However, if it’s too short, you can be left unsatisfied for sure. So, how long is long enough? This is the question I’ve been wrangling with for the last few weeks. Of course, I’m talking about the length of a novel, but you knew that, right?

I’m writing my latest novel and I do believe this one is going to be a little shorter than the rest because frankly, I’m just getting to the end quicker. Maybe I'm just getting better at this and it doesn't take as many words to make my point. Hmm... I could add another twist or turn, but if I add any more twists I fear my readers may be too dizzy to finish the book. And you never want them to say, “Yeah, that was a little too much.”

Most authors I know talk about the length of a novel in word count. Readers generally refer to it as page count. Several of my author friends say they write between 75 and 80,000 words. And I have to say, they write great novels! Most of my books in the past have been around 90,000 words; the last one was 93,000 because it took that long to get through all the suspects in the case. So I was concerned that if I make this one much shorter than that, my readers might feel cheated. Then I spoke with a dear author friend who said, “It’s too bad we have to worry about such things. I think it's different with ebooks. Just wrap it up and call it good. You’re working too hard.” This came from someone who starts writing at 5:00 in the morning and is churning out four books this year. Yeah, I’m the one working too hard!

So, here are my questions:

Authors: How long are your novels?

Readers: Do you ever consider the length of the book when you make a purchase? And has that changed with digital books?

This has nothing to do with my blog.
I just thought he was cute.