What To Do When You Hit A Bump in the Road

What happens when you start a new writing project? Are you excited, eager, passionate about the topic and more than ready to get started? If you are, your writing will come more easily and you'll have a flawless journey to the polished end product.

Oh, wouldn't it be nice if it happened just that way? Even if we are enthused about whatever it is we've chosen to write, that does not mean there will be smooth jogging with no rough spots on the road. We might begin with a bang, get halfway there and suddenly come to a screeching halt. Where do I go now? you might ask yourself. I'm stuck! your inner self tells you.

Will you continue to sit at the computer and stare at the screen? You see the words you've written so far and then there is that awful amount of white space--white space waiting for you to fill it with brilliant sentences. The longer you stare, the blanker your mind goes.

When you've reached this point, get up from that chair and leave your writing space. Go do something entirely non-writing-related. Fix a cup of tea. Go for a walk. Read a magazine. Call a friend. Dust the furniture if you really are at a loss for what to do.

I find that a long walk helps me think about where I should go next when I'm writing. The ideas tend to come more easily while strolling along a path lined with nature's bounty and hearing the birdsong nearby. I've even had ideas about how to fix a rough spot in a story come to me in the shower. Or while driving to the grocery store.

Jot down notes when the ideas come to you for it is far too easy to forget them once you get back to the place where you write. Keywords will bring the thoughts back to you.

Yes, there is magic in new beginnings but there's also hard work and trouble spots before you reach a satisfying end. Don't let that stop you from starting a new writing project. Accept these things and you'll move through from beginning to end, solving little problems along the way. It's all part of this writing game. We may end up hating the process but happy when we have a finished product that is publishable.