Writer’s block

Early in your writing life, the commonest cause of stuckness is your own lack of technical skill in writing. You know what needs to be said, but you can’t figure out how to do it. Like a beginner trying to build a house with only a hammer and saw and a pile of lumber, you have to work harder to accomplish the same structure. Writers can’t go out and buy a new writing tool–there’s no store that sells a “viewpoint transition chisel” or a “flashback installation kit.”

So, when you get stuck this way, you have to make your own tools–by writing through the problem. Identify what it is that you can’t do, then read books in which it is done well–and then go do it. The exercises often proposed for getting past writer’s block may also work because many of them actually sharpen your writer’s tools. It’s fine to figure out a way to work around a skill you haven’t developed yet (such as the ability to handle multiple major viewpoints) as long as you keep working. Sometimes you can jump past the stuck point, and leave it to be solved later–by the time you finish the rest of the book, you may have developed the skill you need to clean up that bit.

Another cause of stuckness hits writers with a trickle-feed imagination, those who can’t outline because they don’t know what happens until they write it. If you have this kind of imagination, and you are an energetic writer, then you can expect to overrun your inspiration repeatedly. When you do, you will feel “lost” or “empty”. Two strategies may help. First, be sure to stop writing before you run out of steam every day–save a little for the next day, so that you know what’s happening when you start the next session. Second, when you’ve overrun your primary vein, jump ahead in the story and see if you can find another vein to follow for awhile. You may end up having to circular-file a chapter or so, but you will enjoy writing something more than sitting there waiting for the bucket to fill.