Writing involves a lot of being stuck. Stuck with a character that isn’t compelling, or stuck with a plot hole with solutions that only make more plot holes, or (my personal nightmare) stuck with the fourth version of a first draft instead of a fourth draft.
Thing is, being stuck isn’t bad. It feels bad, might look bad, but when you’re really stuck, it’s often because you’re facing a legitimately tough problem or challenge. The irony of writing is that, yes, every single problem was made by you, but you learn to get over that. Welcome to the creative life, eat your emotions and keep writing!
How do you overcome being stuck?! That’s a great question and, honestly, the worst answer is also the truest: you just don’t give up. There are great memes of people banging their heads on walls instead of walking around it, but then the wall cracks. That counts!
The key to progress isn’t momentum, skill, nor genius. It’s raw gumption. It’s choosing to believe you can do it and not caring how long it takes. This is very counter to the world we live in, where projects should have been done yesterday and innovation is about speeding up rather than living easier. A great debate can be had on operating out of spite but, honestly? You do you and get it done for you!
What about writing? I’m stuck and I want to do this but can’t get any progress! Well, let me share what has worked for me and hopefully it will work for you:
- Do what writers do best: nothing. Yes, really. Leave the desk, start walking. Look out a window like you’re some famous author deep in contemplation. Listen to music with your eyes closed. Go to the coffee shop and stare into your cup as the abyss stares back. Doing nothing is doing something. It’s getting you out of that hole!
- If you’re writing a story, look at your character and ask, “What is the most random, stupid thing that could happen right now?” Something that would absolutely throw the reader (and the book). I’m talking, “…and then a purple elephant appeared and said you are chosen.” Write nonsense. Really! You’re stuck anyway, so finish that chapter off with sheer idiocy.
Tyler, that’s terrible advice! Is it, though? See…getting unstuck is more about proving you can be unstuck than anything else. Remember: it’s just not giving up. “But what about doing it right!?” you proclaim in exasperation. Well, define doing it right. Dan Brown has some hilariously bad writing, yet he’s a multi-millionaire author despite telling us someone’s eyes went white like a shark about to attack.
- More often than not, being stuck in writing boils down to trying to force a character to do something that isn’t true to their nature. Hence the plot hole. When you inject insanity, writers ‘let go’ of the character and become observers again. Yes, your character shouldn’t encounter purple prophetic elephants…but how your character responded is accurate. That’s information you didn’t have before!
- By taking the writing a little less serious (in the moment), you’re giving your brain a chance to relax and just dream, which is where that creepy little bast…er-hem…where the wonderful and beautiful muse resides. Doing nothing lets the muse do something.
- Most important of all: you didn’t give up. You might have even discovered you’re darn funny and that maybe you should write a story about serious characters in unserious circumstances. You’ve thrown a few logs on the fireplace of creativity, warmed up, and are ready to take a crack at it again.
The passion of writing isn’t about being right or good or eloquent. The passion of writing is about writing because you want to.One of my all-time favorite quotes is by Gloria Steinem:
“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.”
It explains why being stuck as a writer can be so infuriating – because now you have to do something else! Yet another great author, Junot Diaz, has a wonderful quote for such an occasion:
“A writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because everything she does is golden. A writer is a writer because, even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.”
There’s a common adage in all circles of writing: Keep Writing! I have it written in the corner of my desk calendar on every month. That really is the secret sauce to this gig. Just keep writing. The same applies to any craft, really.
You can do this. I know you can! But it is more important that YOU know you can.
TylerTillerson.com 