You Stopped Writing 'Cause It Got Too Hard - NOT an Option

 

If you’re reading my STOP Not Writing blog, 9 out of 10 of you are serious about your writing craft. For it to be a primary or secondary career, not a casual hobby you pen now and then.

So, for those 9, I present you with an awakening.

You can’t stop writing when it gets difficult. It’s when it gets difficult you MUST write.

Yep. I know that feeling…

You’ve come to the point in your manuscript where you’re stuck or you’ve run out of ideas or the character isn’t acting, saying genuine things, or you think your story sucks, etc., etc., etc.

STOP thinking on the negative, is your first task. Go make a drink, sit back, breathe, and chill. You’re getting yourself all worked up for nothing. Remember: writing is NOT a race. It is an art form which needs time and patience. The rest of the world may be going 0 to 60 is a split second. Artists must throw the middle finger up at that populist swill and take the time that is needed to craft a great work of art.

Artists do NOT march to the world’s beat, peeps. Artists CREATE the beat.

Get a backbone and remember that.

If the non-artists in your world gripe about your process, smile, nod, and walk away. They’ll have been born, live, and die, never knowing the artist’s way.

Now, START thinking on the positives. The ways in which you can get this manuscript back on the right track and your fingers pounding the keys.

Hint: When faced with a literary wall, real or imagined, return to your plotline. And yes, this applies to Pantsers, too. Every writer requires a generalized plotline to ensure they don’t write themselves into corners or dive-bomb off cliffs. You Pantser freaks, don’t lecture me about being a free spirit. You can type with abandon, but you need to know the road you’re typing on. So, if that means you’ve not created a generalized plotline, DO IT NOW. I’ll wait. I need a second coffee, anyway.

Listen, you’re already writing paralyzed, so grab some cheap recipe cards and plot out your novel. One scene per card. Obviously not writing, you have nothing better to do.

For those who were smart and created your plotline before you began, it’s time to return to it. Read over each scene card, in linear order. Re-familiarize yourself with your own tale.

No, I don’t care if you are missing scenes. All writers will have scene black holes when they start a new book. (All except for Ian Flemming with his 007 Bond books he crafted in his mind as he sunbathed on a delicious beach in Jamaica. Don’t look at me now. I’m green with feral envy). This exercise is to get your mind’s eye to envision the story line as it is now, in its entirety, so you can re-envision the story arc — the beginning, middle, end, and denouement.

If you’re stuck writing, chances are your mind’s eye has lost the vision. You need to reinstall it into your brain. Think of this as a CPU reboot or some such techno exercise I probably abhor. You need to SEE where you are and where you’re going to BE there, right?

As you read the scene cards over, I’ll bet dollars to donuts you’ll have an ah-ha! moment where the missing piece clicks into place, where you see how you veered off track. If this doesn’t occur, get a friend to read your scene cards and your draft. They’ll surely see your gaffe for you. Buy them a cocktail as thanks, those evil-eyed beta friends.

And once you see where you went off track, you can return to that page, delete the erred section(s), and type on. I’ll also bet now your fingers won’t be able to keep up with your mind’s eye, knowing what is supposed to happen next, and to whom!

So, when you fear the keyboard, when you’d rather have bamboo shoots shoved under your fingernails than write, the above is surely happening to you. Follow the steps I’ve outlined, and you’ll surely be back on your way.

If writing is your life’s métier, stopping is NOT an option. There’s always a way. It’s in the artist’s backbone — their grit, determination, and focus through the worst of times — that will, like sand working inside a seashell, create a lustrous pearl.

Life Fact: Nothing great comes easy. It never will. Accept it and write on.

Becoming Irritable? It's Time to Slow Down...

The State Press

Lately, I've had quite a bit on my plate — self-loaded — so, I don't have anyone to blame but myself. But as I try to juggle five huge works, I'm getting less done, and my patience is dissipating into the A/C breeze that defends me from Calgary's current, and historically high temp, heat wave.

Yes, I could place the blame elsewhere, like this heat wave, but the irritability would remain. 

The questions become: why the impatience? what can I do about it and still continue to get the writing done?

Answer: I have to slow down to get more done.

A long time ago, when I was a wee kiddie, I'd be the same way when completing school assignments would get me irritable and upset. My mom knew that it was the hyper me result, placing too much pressure on myself, and she'd tell me in a soothing voice to slow down and just take one task at a time, and attempt to finish that task before thinking about another. She'd remind me that learning wasn't a race. It was about exposing myself to new ideas, so I could successfully grow as a little person, and if it took me longer to finish, then so be it. Usually, through tears (yes, I was THAT kind of A-type kid), I silently nod, and I'd slow down, and of course, little by little, I'd finish all my assignments.

I'd climb out from under my school books, go and find my wise and far too patient mom, and give her a big, fat hug. I swear to you that without that wonderful woman in my life, I'd be a wet spot on the floor of life.

Has this experience of too-much-all-at-once ever smothered you and your ability to achieve progress on your WIP(s)? I imagine you sorrowfully, silently nodding...

Writers are usually more dangerous to themselves than to others any day, and we often need to have a family member or friend tell us, "Hey, you, you're becoming irritable. Are you taking too much on all at once? If so, slow down."

HOMEWORK: If this describes you, whether your To-Do list is all writing oriented, take my mom's advice, and slow down. Tackle only ONE TASK AT A TIME, and finish that task or session, first, before tackling another. Put horse blinders on your brain and focus on that particular task in front of you now, remembering, as my mom once said, that learning, producing, growing — as a wee kid or a burgeoning artist — is NOT a race. Keep to your writing session schedule and ignore the Big Picture for now.

Art isn't an assembly line, and neither, really, is life. If you try to make life into a conveyor belt production line, your work will flatten out, have no heart, and you'll miss smelling all the wonderful flowers along the scenic route to success. 

I'm vicariously putting that ONE task in front of you now, and sending you a calming smile similar to my mom's... slow down.