Month: January 2021

Writing is a lot of fun, but can also be kind of a struggle.

Especially if you’ve gotten yourself into a negative headspace about something, it’s hard to get words on the page or revise them.

In this post, I’m going to talk about some strategies you can use to get past that feeling, commonly called “writer’s block.”

Is Writer’s Block Real?

Writer’s block is kind of a catch-all phrase writers use to describe any time they’re having difficulty writing.

People like to talk about writer’s block as if it’s some well-defined specific ailment, but — at least for me — I haven’t found that to be accurate. Instead, I tend to think of writer’s block as a symptom of some underlying issue, and not in itself the root cause that needs to be solved.

For example:

• Are you burnt out from writing too much?
• Did you read a great story that was similar to your own?
• Is something in your life making it hard for you to focus on anything?
• Did you get a negative response from a critiquer?
• Is your imposter syndrome flaring up?
• Are you troubled by the fact that you are secretly three dachshunds in a trenchcoat?

And so on. There are any number of things that can lead to writers being discouraged about their work and experiencing something like writer’s block. Because of this, it makes more sense to me to figure out what that underlying issue is, and try to fix that.

Of course, as they say on the Internet, the struggle is real. Whether you consider writer’s block to be a monolithic ailment with a single cure or just the symptom of something else, the end result is the same: the act of writing becomes a bitter struggle as you stare at that blank page for hours.

When writer’s block strikes, it’s easy to tell yourself you’re a failure as a writer and a human being, but neither of those are true. Writer’s block is perfectly normal, established authors deal with it all the time, and it certainly doesn’t mean anything at all about your worth or value as a person (neither of which are, spoiler alert, in fact tied to your writing and productivity).

So, how can you get past writer’s block? Here are eight different methods that sometimes work for me. If you’re stuck, try one or more and see if they help!

One: Fix the Underlying Cause

If you like my take on writer’s block as a catch-all phrase that stands in for any number of other problems, one approach is to figure out what those other problems are and try to resolve them.
Of course, this is easier said than done. Some problems are pretty hard to solve, and there’s no guarantee that fixing anything will get rid of your inability to write.

All the same, if you’re experiencing writer’s block because you’re stressed about something in real life, it’s not a bad idea to try and take care of whatever it is that’s bothering you. If you’re lucky, doing that will help you write again. And even identifying that the problem is outside your writing can be a relief, which might relieve some of the pressure your brain is putting on itself to produce “good” writing.

As an example, let’s take “Did you read a great story that was similar to your own?” from our list of bullet points in section above.

Let’s say you’ve finally been getting into the groove with your brand new, soon-to-be-award-winning-assuming-you-finish-it novel about eighteen rabbits flying fighter pilots in a rebellion against the cruel fox overlords that have taken over a far-future terraformed Mars.

I mean, what a concept, right? How could it not be the best thing ever written?

PUMPED!

And then you see someone on Twitter gushing about this rabbit space pirate novel they’re reading by a multiple award winning, NYT bestselling auhor that everybody loves, and, well…

Oomph.

The next time you sit down to write — a climactic scene, where plucky young rebel Marigold is finally about to face off against the haughty, hungry Duchesse de Renarde — words fail you. You stare at that blank word document, the wind knocked right out of your (solar) sails.

There’s a pretty good chance in this case that your writer’s block is actually tied to anxieties about overlap between your in-progress work and a well-respected author’s already-published novel.

Once you realize that, it might be easier to move forward: even if you’re still upset, you have new strategies you can look to, things like focusing on the differences rather than the similarities, and other ways you can make your own writing stand out. Method three, “kick perfectionism to the curb” is probably also good in situations like this.

The bottom line is that figuring out what’s really bothering you and resolving that, instead of beating your head against the vague and menacing spectre of writer’s block, can be one good way to move forward.

And who knows! By the time you come back to your manuscript after some time off to figure out other problems, maybe you’ll feel refreshed and ready to tackle the words on the page even if that other problem still bothers you.

Two: Find Joy in Something You’ve Written

Let’s take another look at anxieties.

Maybe your writer’s block doesn’t come from an external source, but a general feeling of disappointment at perceptions about your own ability. If the words flowing from your fingers (or not) are getting you down, take a moment to go back through other things you’ve written.

Have a published story? Great! Take a read through it, break out that notebook and pen and write out your favourite line from it. Add the story title and your byline to make it official-looking and fancy, and tack it up near your workspace if you want to.

Or just bask in the glow of “Hey, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Haven’t been published yet? That’s okay, you’ll get there!

Find the thing that brings you joy about your writing and focus on that.

And you can still do this exercise. Just look through something you’ve already written for the best parts, and proceed as above. Even if you’re writing your very first story, there’s probably something you can find in what you’ve done so far that brings you joy. Failing anything else, think up something clever now and write it down.

Maybe it’s not even a line — maybe your characters bring you joy, or the idea of a particular scene. Find the thing that brings you joy about your writing and focus on that for a minute, then get back to the writing with that energy in mind.

Take that, writer’s block!

Three: Kick Perfectionism to the Curb

One big thing I struggle with in my own writing is perfectionism.

I’m the sort of writer who pays attention to the flow of my sentences, and likes a little bit of lyrical poetry (even when it seems like I’m just writing goofy nonsense). That means it’s easy for me to get bogged down in specific details, especially in a first draft.

Even if you don’t write the same way I do, it’s really easy to get writer’s block if you obsess over how different the vision you hold in your head is from what you’re writing down on the page. And first drafts can be particularly problematic.

Remember Hemingway? He famously said that “the first draft of anything is shit.”

Nobody writes perfect first drafts.

Unlike the 6-word story thing it’s possible that this is an actual Hemingway quote, too. Or at least derived from something he said. After some digging, and a bit of librarian-like frustration at the lack of accurate citations on the Internet, I had a stroke of luck: Aron Roberts pointed me to this great analysis on Quote Investigator, a website run by Garson O’Toole which puts the origin of the quote in advice given to another writer, Arnold Samuelson, in the 1930s.

A related quote (which proves Hemingway loved using the word ‘shit’ when talking about writing) is an interview in Issue 18 of The Paris Review (1958), where he says that “the most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof shit-detector.”

Hemingway digressions aside, this is worth reiterating: nobody writes perfect first drafts.

Think back to our SMART goals from lesson one. The whole idea is to break down a huge, daunting, impressive goal into tiny, manageable chunks, not do everything perfectly from the start. (Again: that’s impossible. Don’t try.)

Acknowledging (or accepting) that untramelled genius isn’t going to flow from your fingertips and into your manuscript as soon as you start drafting can sometimes help you to get rid of writer’s block. Giving yourself permission to write a shitty first draft can work, too.

After all, you can always revise a terrible first draft. You can’t even do that with an idea that’s still in your head. Focus on getting words down, not on proving how awesome a writer you “should” be. (Spoiler alert: lots of awesome writers also write terrible first drafts.)

Four: Take a Break

If none of the techniques above are getting you past your writer’s block, ask yourself if you just need a break.

I know there’s the idea out there that “real writers” write every day, no matter what.

Frankly, holding to that ideal can harm both your self-esteem and your ability to write.

Do some writers write every day, no matter what? Absolutely! And good for them. It’s nice to do it if you can.

Do you have to? Absolutely not.

The phrase “real writer,” incidentally, is garbage.

If anyone starts a sentence with “real writers,” you have my permission to ignore the rest of what they say unless it’s “Real writers are much more complicated than hedgehogs” or something.

Seriously, there’s no such thing as a “real” writer. The status of “writer” is based on practice, not “number of publications” or “has an Amazon page” or some other equally arbitrary qualification. (I see this especially leveraged against non-male, non-white writers, and it ticks me off every time!)

If you’re writing, have written, or are going to write, guess what you are? You’re a writer. Even if you are dealing with writer’s block, that doesn’t change anything.

Anyway, plenty of published authors I know don’t write every day. I sometimes go weeks at a time without putting down words. A friend of mine just started writing again after a two year break. Ernest Hemingway has been dead since 1961 and apparently he still comes back to writing for the occasional inspirational quote.

Life happens, and it’s okay to take a break. Even if life isn’t happening and you’re just not feeling it today, that’s fine. You’ll come back to it some other time, and then you’ll write. (Even if you don’t, life will go on, I promise you.)

Take a little time off to relax and practice some self-care instead of obsessing over productivity, and see if your writer’s block clears up the next time you sit down to write. You might just find that all you needed was a little distance from your work.

Five: Power through It

Sometimes, of course, the opposite to method four holds true.

While you don’t need to write every day, you do need to write sometimes. It’s just a matter of numbers. While you can write a complete novel in a year at 250 words a day (250 * 365 = 91,250), you can’t even write a single piece of flash fiction at 0 words a day no matter how long you do it for (0 * any arbitrary large number = well… 0).

Again, don’t stress about this.

But sometimes you do need to put words on the page. If you’re a “mind over matter” kind of person, forcing yourself to write even though you hate every word of it can sometimes work to beat writer’s block. At least you wrote something, even if it was terrible.

I often find that after the fact I don’t hate stuff quite as much, anyway. Or, if I’m being perfectly honest, that I hate things I loved when I was writing them about as much as stuff I hated writing.

The bottom line is: nobody can tell if you think your work is amazing or terrible, and what you think about it usually doesn’t line up with what readers do.

So if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t mind mechanically doing things you hate, you can try to power through it. I really wouldn’t recommend this approach unless you know you’re that kind of person, though. Forcing yourself to write when you hate it can lead to burnout.

Six: [Apply Brackets]

For longer stories and novels, I follow a pretty weird writing process.

I don’t just sit down with my outline, start at the first scene, and write through to the end. Actually, I often write the ending scene before I’ve finished most of the novel. I’m not afraid to jump around, either, especially if I’m getting stuck on a particular scene.

So if you think your writer’s block might be coming from the particular part of the story you’re writing, or if you find that your wheels are spinning over some detail — no matter how major it is — allow me to introduce you to your new best friend: the [bracket].

Can’t figure out the average air speed velocity of a laden swallow? Just stick [speed] in there!

Facing a blockage because you can’t come up with a perfect name for your character? [name1] to the rescue!

This trick is infinitely flexible, up to the point where you can bracket off a whole scene to yourself to come back to later, if it helps you move past a point that’s causing you writer’s block.

You could also use parentheses for this, of course. But square brackets are convenient because you can run for [ and hop to the next thing that needs fixing when it’s time to revise. This is also why professional editors use TK to mark things that need to be fixed. Neither a square bracket or the combination TK is likely to appear in your manuscript file elsewhere.

Just remember that you will need to fill in your brackets eventually. I can’t count the number of times I’ve cursed past me because he’s left me a note like [insert clever dialogue here] halfway through the climactic scene of a new story.

Really, past-me? That’s the best you could do?! Ugh, past selves.

Seriously, though. Bracketing off something you can’t figure out can free you up to move forward with your story. Again, the goal is to get something down and fix it up later, not write perfection.

Seven: Remember Why You’re Writing

This is similar to method number two.

Again, the idea is to remind yourself why you’re doing this.

If you’re a goal-motivated person, just taking a moment to explicitly pull those goals up and remind yourself that there’s something waiting for you after you make it through everything can be enough to banish writer’s block.

Of course, if your anxieties about writing are at the root of your problem, or you’re the sort of person to obsess over every last thing that will keep you from your goals, this can backfire. So apply with caution! (See also: the next method in this list.)

Eight: Be the Friend

It sounds a little hokey, but think of what you’d say to a friend who came to you with writer’s block, or to express insecurities about their writing.

Would you say, “Well yeah, you’re garbage and so is everything you write LOLOL DON’T QUIT YOUR DAYJOB!”

Hopefully, no. No you would not. (If you answered “yes,” please re-examine your life choices!)

So don’t let yourself get away with talking to yourself in such a negative way. Remind yourself that it’s okay to not be at the top of your game all the time. That your worth as a person doesn’t depend on your ability to puts words on a blank page, or revise ones that are already there. Practice a little self-care. Build yourself up instead of putting yourself down.

Low self-esteem sucks, and can definitely impact your writing, so try this out if you’re the sort of person who’s pessimistic about your own abilities.

Or take a break, if you think it’d be helpful. Think about writer’s block, and come up with a plan for what you might do if it ever strikes you.

Next week, we’re going to build on our strong start — and the flash story you’ve been writing — by learning about the art of short fiction critiquing.

The hardest part of any new habit is getting started. This is certainly true for fiction writing.

In fact, one of the things I’ve found as a writer is that no matter how many stories I’ve finished and submitted getting started on even a new story is hard, sometimes — that blank page just stares you down, and all your great ideas just flee in the face of the endless possibilities.

We’ll get into how to deal with that in another post. For now, let’s focus just on the idea of fiction writing.

In the post below, I’ll outline some suggestions for how to start a writing practice without burning out or beating yourself up, two things that turn fiction writing from an enjoyable hobby or career and into a grueling autopugilistic disaster.

First, let’s go back over our materials list. You don’t necessarily need to run out and buy a fancy planner or scheduler (unless that sort of thing motivates you!), but you’ll want to have either some paper and a writing implement or the digital equivalent on hand to write down a few things.

For bonus points, you’ll also need a friend who’s willing to receive updates about your progress — although if this idea gives you anxiety like it does me, I totally understand why you’d skip it.

Also, this is kind of a long post. If you don’t have a lot of time, you can split each sub-heading out into its own day. If you have more time, working through all of it at once should take you an hour or two at most.

Holding Yourself Accountable

Why write things down? Why set goals at all? Can’t we just start writing? Well, sure. Nothing’s stopping you, and if that invigorating rush of starting something new will sustain you in the long run, it’s worth a shot.

Speaking from my personal experience, though, I do a lot better if I have a goal in mind and a plan for how to get there. Writing it down gives me something to look back at if I forget where I’m going or how I plan to get there, and looking at goals can be motivated.

At this point I’d just like to reiterate something: There’s no One True Way to Be a Writer. If you’ve tried and succeeded in the past without written goals, or if for some other reason you can’t or don’t want to write stuff down right now, that’s okay.

That said, on this occasion I have SCIENCE to back me up!

Science!!!!

Heck yeah, I guess.

Setting Goals for Fiction Writing

More seriously, psychologists have actually carried out empirical studies on goal-setting and writing things down.

This article from Michican State University cites a 2015 study by Dr. Gail Matthews that split participants into groups, with some writing down and sharing their goals with friends and a control group who just thought about their goals.

The result?

Of the participants who wrote down their goals and shared weekly progress with a friend, 76% successfully achieved their goals. Those who thought about their goals, but didn’t write them down, only had a 43% success rate.

It’s pretty clear from this study that writing down what you want to do and how you plan to get there can increase your chances.

Full disclosure: I suck at doing this, and it has 100% slowed down my attempts to draft and revise the novel I’ve been working on since 2018. For short fiction writing, where I actually keep track of my submission goals (and deadlines!) in a spreadsheet, I do much better.

This year I’ve set myself a goal of working on the novel revision for 30 minutes a day. It might be a pretty small number, but it’s something I can actually do. So far, I’ve been sticking to it and while I haven’t gotten a lot done yet, I know those 30 minutes will add up eventually.

Which is a nice segue into the next part of this lesson:

The Gentle Art of Goal Setting

Not all goals are created equal.

There are many different methods for creating useful goals, but one that’s worked for me is the SMART criteria system. Originally designed by George Doran in the early 1980s as a way of meeting management objectives, this system is easily adaptable to any situation, and is one useful way to guide yourself as you set fiction writing goals for yourself.

SMART, in this case, is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timey-Wimey. (Okay, maybe it wasn’t timey-wimey in the original acronym.) Let’s break down each of these terms.

Specific: Don’t set big goals like “become a best-selling author.” Break that big goal down into smaller, more specific ones. “Write a short story” isn’t as impressive on paper, but it’s much easier to do because it’s specific. Don’t think of this as compromising on your dreams — after you finish that one story, you’ll set a new goal. And another. And another. Keeping them specific just ensures you have a better idea of how to achieve what you want to do with your fiction writing.

Measurable: Measurable goals are easier to achieve because you can see how you’re progressing. If instead of “write a short story,” we say “write a 500-word short story,” then you can start feeling good as soon as you’ve got those first 50 words down — that’s 1/10 of the way there alraedy! It doesn’t have to be wordcount, and in fact some fiction writing goals are better without numbers attached, but try to find some way you can measure your goals, whether it’s words written, hours spent writing, stories finished, or even just number of strangers you’ve awkwardly introduced yourself to by saying “So, I write short stories….” (Advice: don’t be that person.)

Try to pick goals that rely only on you.

Attainable: This ties in with specific and realistic, but is a little different. Goals work best when they’re something you have control over. I have some fiction writing friends who set goals like “This year, I’m going to sell a story to [insert magazine name here].” That might be motivating, but it is (in my opinion) not an attainable goal because it relies on someone other than you. You have no control over the editor of a magazine, and can’t guarantee they’ll buy your story no matter what you do. If your goal, however, is “This year, I’m going to submit three stories to [insert magazine name here],” that’s entirely within your control. In short: Try to pick goals that rely only on you.

Realistic: Think back to “become a best-selling author.” Sure, who wouldn’t love that? It’s definitely on my writer bingo card. But it’s not super realistic, especially if you just started out. “I want to get better at writing fiction” is realistic, but it misses some of the other targets above, since it’s non-specific and not really measurable. Honestly, if your fiction writing goals are specific, measurable, and attainable they’re probably already realistic. Just make sure you’re aiming for something you have a chance of actually succeeding at, and you’ll be good here.

Timey-Wimey: Speaking for myself, nothing motivates me like a deadline. If I say “I’ll revise this story someday,” someday never comes. If I say “I’ll finish revising this story by next Wednesday so I can send it to Mermaids Monthly,” chances are good it will get done — even if it is only because on Tuesday night I started scrambling…

Of course, “write a 500 word short story” is maybe a bit too small for your overall goal. (But maybe it’s not! I don’t know your circumstances!)

Try to think of what you can reasonably accomplish in a 3-month period and shoot for that. Just Remember: You want something you can feel satisfied with, but not something so time-intensive and difficult you’ll want to quit.

Setting a Schedule for Fiction Writing

Goals are one big part of a sustainable fiction writing habit. Figuring out a schedule that works for you is equally important.

Now, I have two kids. I have a full time job. I do freelance nonfiction and have other commitments as well. That means it’s not possible for me to set an ambitious schedule (or at laest, not possible to keep it). Keeping my goals realistic helps, but I also have to make compromises and just drop the schedule in the short term if it’s not feasible.

It’s also worth mentioning that there are different approaches to fiction writing. Some authors do really well with an hour a day at the same time every day, and neither rain nor snow nor glom of nit will stop them. Others don’t write anything at all for weeks (or months!) at a time, and then crank out a story in a single day. Some even just write when they feel like it.

At some point, though, you have to write if you want to get anything done. Many writers in the speculative fiction writing community call this “butt in chair time.”

Keep all of this in mind as you think about what a writing schedule might look like for you. An hour a day? Thirty minutes? Maybe doing two 15-minute sessions a day is more workable, and will get you where you want to go. Setting a stopwatch or other timer can be helpful.

No matter what you go with, try and stick to it for a month and see how it goes.

Just like with goals, you probably have a better chance of sticking to your schedule if you write it down. Writing down your schedule also has other benefits: you can show it to people who might not otherwise understand quite what you’re doing when you lock yourself away (physically or mentally) and sit in front of a keyboard or notebook for an hour every day.

Don’t be rude about defending your time, but try to be firm — within the bounds of reason. Explain your goals and why they’re important to you, and why you need the time you’ve set aside to reach them.

That said, I have a 10 year old and a 9 year old. I’ve been writing at home since my kids were born, and have long since learned to drop my writing at a moment’s notice when they need me and pick it up again later. Learning to work around constant interruptions is actually a pretty great skill for fiction writing.

In the end, scheduling is about balancing fiction writing goals with not being a William Faulkner level asshole. Faulkner may have won the Nobel prize for literature, but he also once told his daughter “Nobody remembers Shakespeare’s children.” (Spoiler: She released an autobiography after his death, including this and other charming details.) This is not a recommended approach and is, frankly, abusive.

If your schedule doesn’t work out, it’s not the end of the world. I’m not saying I don’t get frustrated when my fiction writing is interrupted — it is frustrating — but rather that it’s important to me that I keep a sense of perspective.

If you get called away during your fiction writing time, try not to stress. It will be waiting when you come back.

Don’t Compare Your Goals (or Output) to Others

One last thing about goals and schedules, and then we’ll move on to failing (an exciting topic!).

It’s natural to see what other writers are up to and feel jealous, or to feel like you’re useless because Wuck Chendig can write 63,000 words a month and you can barely manage 1,000.

But here’s the thing: Wuck Chendig is in a totally different place than you.

He (or she, or they!) might be a full time writer, spending 4-6 hours a day on nothing but fiction writing while you’re only getting in half an hour a day around a full time job and family obligations. Or he might have started writing twenty years ago, while you just picked it up three months before.

Especially for fiction writing, there are huge differences in schedules, writing habits, and writing output. That’s all fine.

This goes in both directions, incidentally. One of my writing friends who’s only been writing for a year or two had six stories published in 2020, receiving critical attention and a glowing review on a major industry blog. Another friend who started writing around the same time I did also had a great 2020, with a lot of attention and buzz for several stories.

It’s hard not to look at my own 2020 and feel like a failure by comparison. To look at the attention other people are getting and not want to ask what I’m doing wrong because my own work didn’t get any buzz. It’s hard, but I try. But without that comparison I did pretty well for myself, with seven of my own stories published.

Aidan Doyle has a great take on this called the Science Fiction Writer’s Hierarchy of Doubt.

The short version of what I’m saying is this: Everyone is on their own path, and as long as what you’re doing works for you then what you’re doing works.

Comparing your own fiction writing successes to someone else’s is a surefire way to make yourself miserable, so my advice is to avoid doing that as much as you can. Instead, focus on meeting your own goals and congratulate yourself for meeting them when you do.

What to Do when You Don’t Meet Your Goals

Failure is a part of life.

Writers in particular seem fond of quoting Samuel Beckett’s “Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better,” from the author’s Worstward Ho! (Oddly, nobody quotes the other parts, despite insights like “Say for be said. Missaid. From now say for missaid.” Gotta love modernism!)

Failure is inevitable. It doesn’t have to be permanent.

Anyway, the point is not entirely that absurdist drama is a questionable source of inspiration. It’s that failure is inevitable. However, it doesn’t have to be permanent.

What do I mean by that?

Unless you are unimaginably lucky (I do not like the word “talented” — talent is learned, not innate, and it isn’t all you need to succeed anyway.) you are absolutely going to fail at some point. That’s true in just about anything. In fiction writing, you might fail to your goals, you might stop sticking to your schedule, or you might . And of course, there’s dealing with rejection letters, and the many other wonderful ways fiction writing can go sideways.

The disappointing truth is this: failure is totally normal.

All writers have to cope with failure at some point in their career, and that goes doubly for most of us who write short fiction, which requires a steady submission habit. If you ask 10 published short fiction writers how many times they get rejected in between each story sale, the number is likely to be higher than you think.

Here’s an example: I sold ten stories in 2020. That might sound impressive. But I also received 103 rejections in 2020. Failure is everywhere in my short fiction career, and it vastly outnumbers my successes.

So when you find yourself failing, whether it’s by not meeting your goals, not sticking to your schedule, or whatever, don’t beat yourself up over it.

If you quit forever after failing at something, you’ll never get to where you want to be. Instead, review your goals to make sure they still meet the SMART criteria and that they still feel like goals you want to achieve. Review your schedule to make sure it’s a realistic one. Ask yourself “What went wrong that time?” and make a note of it, then try again with that in mind.

It’s sometimes hard to keep going, and that’s okay. Take a break! Refresh yourself! But if you want to meet your goals, you have to try again at some point. If you persist, you’ll eventually succeed.

Assignment: Set Your Fiction Writing Goals and Schedule

Your assignment is both simple and hard:

1. Come up with a list of two to three goals for your writing
2. Figure out a schedule you’ll use for your fiction writing

If you’re having trouble getting started, here are a few example goals:

• Write, revise, and submit three short stories
• Write, revise, and submit a single 3,000 word story
• Write three poems each month in January, February, and March

and some example schedules:

• Spend an hour every weekday on fiction writing
• Write for three hours a week
• Two 25-minute pomodoros of fiction writing a day, or 500 words a day (whichever comes first)

For extra credit, you can find someone to share your goals and schedule with and arrange weekly check-ins.

Other writers are great for this kind of thing. If you don’t already know some, check out the #amwriting tag on Twitter. You’re also more than welcome to comment on this post for accountability purposes.

Next week, we’ll start writing!