Write When You Don’t Want to
Especially when you don’t want to
Yesterday on Twitter an author asked how to maintain focus when writing a first draft.
We’ve all been there. We finally caught that state of flow and then —bam — it dries up.
Even writers of shorter pieces experience the moment their fingers stop moving and the words stop coming.
It’s frustrating.
And some writers let it stop them completely.
Hitting that obstacle makes us doubt our original intent. In some cases, it can make us wonder whether our previous success was a fluke.
But the only way to get through it is to just keep writing.
Resistance is normal
What that author on Twitter was experiencing is actually pretty common.
Listen to author podcasts, or start talking with a bunch of novelists, and many of them will admit that somewhere around the 30k to 40k mark in their manuscripts they hit a wall.
I suffer from this, too.
My current work-in-progress is sitting at 36,000 words, at which point I hit that wall, hard.
Something about approaching the halfway point made the flow of words slow to a trickle, and then nothing.
For me, this is the point in a manuscript where I’ve captured all of the major story plot points I’ve been dying to write. The movie in my head was captured. And this is where the hard part of putting it all together into a cohesive story begins.
It’s when the fun fades and I have to face the work.
The wall exists in shorter pieces as well. Once you’ve written the main idea that’s been tumbling around in your head for days, it can be hard to figure out how to finish. Or, wait, what was the point of that piece in the first place?
That’s where the hard work of writing comes in: persisting until that creative idea is fully communicated.
If you know that resistance is normal, then you’ll see that this isn’t about you, it’s about the process.
You’ll never fall into a hole of doubt, wondering if you can even write.
Which is a terrible waste of time.
So how do you get past that resistance?
Keep your fingers moving
Keep going.
Really.
There is no easy way out.
But something happens when you force yourself to keep writing useless and terrible words you’ll likely delete later: As soon as you start pushing through, you’ll feel that resistance start to fade. The words will begin to flow again.
So, here’s the advice I gave to that writer on Twitter:
Just keep writing. Especially when it’s terrible. Write about how terrible it is, and what would be so much better. Next thing you know, you’re back on your way. Makes revisions entertaining and gets you over those moments where you’re stumped.
This method is how I get past resistance, and it’s the advice I’ve given to other authors to help them move past that hurdle.
Sure, your first draft may be pretty rough when you get to the end, but you’ll be at the end.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to delete a “this is terrible, why is she doing this, the story would be so much better if…” paragraph. Or multiple paragraphs until I got to where I needed to be.
The words are flowing again on my work-in-progress because I wrote a few pages trying to feel my way through a challenging scene transition.
You could look at these words as “wasted” since I’ll have to delete them, but I don’t see them as a waste at all. They were necessary for my creative process. The brainstorming had to come out through my fingers.
This is all part of the creative process.
As much as creativity is about the inspiration, it’s equally about execution. Sometimes that execution can take far more work than the reader would ever expect from reading the finished product, but it’s that extra work that made the product good.
So stop dwelling on trying to get it all right the first time. Work it out as you go, if you need to. No one has to see that first draft.
Learn resilience
This method teaches you that you can beat resistance.
If you never push back against an obstacle, you’ll never know most situations can be overcome.
You are capable of pushing past things when they get hard.
That’s an empowering idea.
The next time you face that wall in writing, you’ll see it for what it is, and push through.
No more wasted days, weeks, or months lamenting how hard writing is. No more unfinished drafts.
The most successful writers are resiliant. They keep writing no matter what.
They know a minor setback in the process is simply a minor setback.
A life as a writer is full of resistance. To get traditionally published, or even published online, we face rejection. Lots of rejection.
And even if you choose to self publish, rejection comes in the form of bad reviews, a lack of readers, or nonexistent book sales.
Learn from those challenges, and keep going.
You’ll have days that writing is fun, days like it feels like a chore, and days it will feel impossible.
But don’t stop.
The words will come.
