Hello writers!
My intention today is to give you a tool for future reference. I hope that it leaves you feeling like you’re not alone, and helps you understand yourself and your writing process a little bit more.
Because WE ALL GET STUCK.
Writing is tricky business. It’s a weird mishmash of emotional vulnerability and analytical thinking and imagination and punctuation. So it makes sense that stuck-ness can sprout from any and all of the dark corners of our minds.
And it’s TOTALLY NORMAL. Nothing is going wrong here.
With that, let’s look at a few reasons we might get stuck.
You have lost motivation.
Although this feels terrible, it objectively isn’t that big of a deal. A novel is a big project and it takes a long time. You’re going to probably experience a rush of enthusiasm at the beginning, and then that is going to fade, and for the rest of the project your motivation will come and go in waves. This is all totally normal. Ride the wave.
You don’t know where you’re headed.
In other words, you started out with the beginning of the story in mind, but wanted the muse or some other form of inspiration to show you which way to go. This is one thing in a piece of shorter writing, but if you’re in a book-length project it poses some challenges. If you don’t know where you’re going and don’t have a map, you’re going to wind up on a dead-end street in a city and state you’re unfamiliar with. Even if you prefer to let your writing show you where it’s going, I recommend you at least select a few key plot points to guide you like a north star.
Your inner critic is making noise.
It’s telling you that your writing is terrible, that no one will ever read it, that you might as well quit now. If that’s the case, we can’t be surprised that you are stuck! If every time you sit down to write some big meany is bullying you, of course you are going to be frozen in place.
This voice won’t be vanquished. It can’t be; it’s just your primitive brain trying to keep you safe. So instead of fighting with it, we have to just let it be without giving it power.
Self-doubt is part of the process, and it doesn’t need to keep you from writing.
You aren’t really invested in your story.
Now this might feel like a bit of tough love, but if you are going to write a book-length project, you’re going to need to care about it enough to sustain you through the long effort of writing it. And if you’re not really invested in it, that might be telling you something important.
You’ve recognized a plot problem...
…and you don’t know what to do about it. Going back to that cross-country driving analogy, it’s like you suddenly realize partway through that instead of driving a hatchback it would have been so much better to have a camper van. Should you stop and get one? Or should you go back to the beginning and retrace your route with the new vehicle? Or should you plow through to the end suffering with your tiny car?
It’s a combo platter of stuck-ness.
Now it’s possible that you are experiencing a combination of two or more of these reasons, which is also very common. See if you can parse out the different reasons. Knowledge is power, my friend!
Here’s a Pep Talk for when you find yourself stuck in a piece of writing, including a few strategies for pulling yourself out of the muck. I hope you find it helpful!
Just remember: it’s worth the work to get your story out onto the page and into the world. You’ve got this.
Warmly,
Stephanie
What do you do when you get stuck? Any words of advice? Please share in the comments!
P.S. Feeling stuck? I have 8 openings in September and October for Booster Sessions! Grab your 50-minute brainstorming call with me now. Click here to learn more! »
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