Have you ever felt stuck in your writing?
Whether it’s a specific point in your work in progress, or your entire writing process, we often get stuck.
I’ve been stuck all summer.
There are lots of reasons for it, but stuck is where I am and it is beyond frustrating. So, I get it.
In fact, that yucky stuck feeling is one of the main reasons I became a book coach: to help writers through their version of stuck.
Stuck can feel like writer’s block.
You are sitting at the page with time to focus on your writing but the words won’t come. You have no ideas. You don’t know what comes next. Inspiration feels far away. This can lead to feelings of frustration, doubt, and even anger since this is likely the moment you look at other writers you know or follow online who are seemingly cranking out content at a brisk pace and may fear your muse has jumped the fence to greener pastures.
Stuck can feel like stale writing.
Something isn’t working in your manuscript but you aren’t sure what or exactly where. The scene or the writing feels forced. You are cramming a scene/character/subplot into place to make something else work, but it’s not solving the problem and, chances are, isn’t fun to write either.
Stuck can feel like procrastination.
You’d rather straighten your desk or reorganize your closets than sit down at the page. The call to a social media dopamine hit can be irresistible in those moments and you find yourself frittering away the hours on Instagram instead of working on your manuscript. Or you fall prey to the productive procrastination trap of research. What started as a simple Google search to answer a question has led you down a rabbit hole of information that you simply MUST know more about before you feel you can continue writing.
Stuck can feel like frustration that you’ve taken this story as far as you can.
This one can be the most disempowering. You’re getting form letter rejections and you start begging the universe to simply tell you how to fix the story because you know you’re capable, you just aren’t sure what to do anymore to make it stronger and if someone would just TELL YOU ALREADY, then you’d be a best seller.
Stuck can feel like giving up.
On your current story. On writing. On your creative dreams.
The good news is that you don’t have to give up!
If writing and telling this story is truly what you want to do, all of these versions of stuck have a solution. However, it may not be easy. There is no quick fix out of stuck.
Freeing yourself might require learning craft, taking a hard look at a darling that isn’t serving your story, or even tearing apart a polished manuscript and fixing a major structural problem in revision.
It might be a lot of things, but it will definitely be work.
Work you can do.
I know because I have been there. Stuck. Wishing for an easy road. Only making progress when I commit to doing the work.
But, writing is in my blood and so I do the work anyway. Or try to. I look for new avenues when too many roads are blocked. I read. I try an Artist Date.
I know writing is in your blood, too, or you wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t still be looking for answers.
Take heart in your frustration and angst. It means you still care. Probably a lot.
That passion is what will carry you through.
So, Monica, I hear you asking, I’m ready to do the work–tell me what to do, already!
Understanding YOUR version of stuck.
I want you to pull out a journal and do some exploring. Answer these questions:
- Are you stuck in your writing? Where? Is it in a specific scene or chapter? Or is it a larger problem with your process or routine?
- When else have you felt stuck in your writing life?
- What does stuck feel like or look like for you?
- What things have worked in the past to help free you from the bind?
- When does writing feel good to you? Recount a writing session that felt particularly good – where did it take place? What were the circumstances? What project were you working on? What kind of scene was it (dialogue, setting, inciting incident, creating a twist, etc…)?
- What things have you tried to get unstuck that haven’t worked?
- What things have you always wanted to try or been curious about but haven’t tried yet for whatever reason?
I did this exercise myself when I was feeling stuck nearing the end of a draft.
I found myself slowing down as I neared the end. Not because I had run out of ideas or wasn’t looking forward to writing the next scene or that I didn’t know what came next. No, I resisted the work because the closer I got to the end (and not just the end but “The End”), the closer I was to sending it to my critique partner.
In other words, I was getting closer to outside eyes.
And no matter how kind and supportive I knew those eyes were going to be, they were still no longer mine. In order to protect myself, my inner critic attempted to find new problems to solve before I was done solving old ones. It built a protective wall around my sensitive little creative heart in advance, when I still needed it to be open and vulnerable to what was happening on the page.
It’s important that I know and recognize this pattern so when I feel the laundry becoming more important than my writing time when I’m nearing the end of a draft, I can remind myself this is to be expected as part of my process. I can politely ask my inner critic to take a back seat for a little longer while I finish playing on the page.
Take some time and figure out what stuck looks and feels like for you.
Use what you have learned to make changes—replicate the environment that works best for you, acknowledge when stuck is happening in the same places it always does, find the tools you need (a break, a change in location, an Artist Date, outside help) to get unstuck.
You can go back to this exercise every time you feel stuck. I know I do.
The act of sitting with my stuck can often reveal what the underlying problem is allowing me to make informed decisions about the scene or my process.
It’s a lot more effective than continuing to throw darts at the board blindfolded and wondering why I’m still missing the mark.
Give it a try. See what you uncover. It may be different for different manuscripts or phases of work/life. Or it could be a recurring pattern.
Let me know what you find out!
Tell me, where do you usually feel stuck?
Need help getting unstuck?
I’m here to help when you’re ready.