Sometimes, even when you know exactly where you want your story to go… the words just don’t want to come out. It’s a battle for every horrible adjective and every weak verb. This usually happens to me somewhere between the middle of a story and the end of a story. You know the place where the end is in sight, but still not quite attainable. That’s my typical writer’s block point.
This WIP is no different. When I hit this point my mind does something very, very, very bad: It starts thinking about other stories.
This is not bad in it of itself. It’s only bad if I ACT on that thinking.
My former un-finished novel writing self would write a few chapters, sometimes even half a novel, hit that stopping point and then be lured away by another shiny new story idea. Sometimes I would go back to those chapters, sometimes I’d never look at them again, but always… always they’d remain unfinished.
This must be a common problem with writers because I don’t know how often I have seen someone’s advice to get published be: FINISH A BOOK.
So, now I have many finished books under my belt, and whenever I hit that point where the desire is to start something new or go elsewhere… I allow my mind a little time to venture elsewhere. As long as I don’t act on leaving the WIP, it usually helps me get over that writing hump and return to the WIP with fresh eyes.
Nicole Helm 