How to Get Unstuck in Your Writing
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It happens to the best of us.
You’re on a roll with your writing practice, and then: Nothing.
The words just seem wrong, and every time you try to put something down, you erase it, thinking something better will come.
But it doesn’t. Then you feel anxious about what’s not happening. The more time you spend staring at the blinking cursor is more time spent in self-doubt, and the cycle continues. You’re looking at deadlines with panic and are afraid you’re not cut out for this writing thing after all.
What if, the very thing that’s blocking you from writing is also the thing that’ll unlock your next pages?
It’s not so easy.
Really? Let me show you how easy it is.
Write Through Your Resistance
Instead of internalizing your frustration and writing and erasing in circles, write out what you feel like your block is.
For example, if you’re not stoked on your opening chapter, write out why. Is it kind of boring and something you would even skip? Have you gotten a lot of similar feedback about it not working, but you don’t know what to do now? Are there jumps in time you believed would work, but turns out, it’s just made a confusing mess that’s too much to fix?
Work through all of those frustrations because you might find the reason the chapter is boring is because you’ve spent ten pages building up to the next chapter, but chapter two should really be chapter one.
Or you don’t know what to do with the feedback because you believe your story makes sense as is, so write out your defense of it. Why did you make the creative choices you did? Why would it not work any other way? And if readers make the same comments, will you be okay with that feedback?
You can free write, create a bulleted list, or even grab your voice and record a voice memo. But work through what your resistance truly is to the work. You may find you need to do more research before crafting scenes or that your characters are lacking an internal motivation making them appear lifeless.
Instead of avoiding problems in your work, attack them head on. You’ll have to eventually, and chances are your resistance is really your intuition yelling at you that something isn’t working.
When You’re Still Stuck, Get Help
One of the mistakes writers make is thinking they have to do it alone until they have a completed manuscript. Yes, there are times when you need to hole up, gather your ideas and be left by yourself. The trick is knowing when to get help before you have 400 pages of a book you don’t know what to do with.
If you have a solid idea of what your food memoir or cookbook is and have hit a plateau or aren’t sure what to do next, it’s time to bring in help.
This could be a book coach or editor, but it should be someone who is invested in your work—not just a friend or colleague who casually looks at your pages when they have time.
Every writer hits a wall with a story. By attacking your resistance head on, you won’t be stuck nearly as long, and you’ll be more brave — on the page and off. And when you need help beyond that, you can get help from trusted folks who are excited to give you feedback that’ll strengthen the story you’re telling.
Find out how we can work together here, so you never have to be stuck again.
