Write on, my friends.

~ Meg

I had a conversation with a friend the other night. Someone who also wants to write. Well, does write, she just hasn’t finished anything. I sympathize. There are times when, no matter how hard you try, the action in your story just comes to a screeching halt. I’m actually at that point in my current project. Seriously, if I’ve managed a paragraph in the last month, it’s probably an exaggeration. It’s true I’ve been stretching myself thin here in Bloglandia, with the collaborative work I’m writing with Fictional Kevin and my other weekly features. Nevertheless, I need to move forward with the next book in my novel series. But I’m stuck… Sound familiar?

When I’ve struggled like this in the past, I’ve found a way to get through it. Ready for some brilliant advice? Write nonsense. Yep. Even if it totally sucks, doesn’t move your plot along, bogs your characters down… you get the idea, you’re still writing. And sometimes that’s all we can do – keep going. So for example, describe your character’s grocery list, have them watch TV, make tea and read their own books. Maybe have them engage in mundane household activities or meet one of the other characters for lunch. Sound like a waste of time? Trust me it’s not. It’ll get you to the next ‘thing’ and you can go back and delete all the filler. And delete, you must!

Unless this unexpected foray into tea making, housekeeping or lunch having has become somehow integral to the plot, you have to cut it out of there. Even if it’s some of the most beautiful writing (you think) you’ve ever done. The exception here might be the lunch with another character, where possibly their conversation over soup and salad may reveal important plot points or details. Otherwise, you are just wasting the reader’s time.

But not your time, you see. You’ve moved forward. You have kept writing. And that is what writers do!

Published by Meg

Easily amused, never bored and constantly distracted. My creative pursuits include writing, drawing, painting and photography.

35 thoughts on “Write on, my friends.”

  1. That’s advice I need to take to heart. I’m not stuck as such but off late in find myself not happy with my writing, it’s like “ugghh…everything I write sucks!!” kind of feeling and that’s putting me off from writing. I’m hoping the break I had helps me move on….let’s see! As of now catching up with all the blogs I missed this week….starting with yours! 😀

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  2. Great advice Meg. I tell my daughter the same with school papers. When you hit a rut, just get the next line down and go back and correct it later. I have written bad chapters just to move the story along. Unlike a brain surgeon, we have the luxury of going back to edit.

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  6. I like this. When I have too much all jumbled in my brain I find this helps to get some order to the chaos. The other night I couldn’t sleep with so much whirling around and I just started making notes. It looks like the strangest grocery list ever.

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  8. I do stuff like this… And I have lots of silly bits because of it! But it does help to just keep going even if it’s pointless for the actual story. I was just telling someone who was struggling to sit there and write for at least 20 minutes without stopping… no matter what she was writing. I think it just kind of gets you going… 🙂

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  10. Great advice! Sometimes I find I expect too much of myself as a writer which in turn bogs me down. I need to learn to simply write, enjoy the process, and then remove the extra fluff.

    Thanks for your encouraging post.

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  11. Great post and advice. Keeping the wheels turning can be the best motivation to bring out the deep thoughts you’ve been trying to articulate. I’m TOTALLY guilty of this recently!

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    1. Yes exactly! Keep putting words down on the page, let the muse talk to you. Ok, that sounds crazy… You know what mean? I swear the tap of the keys on the keyboard sometimes takes on a life of its own…. But none of that can happen if you binge watching tv on Netflix! How are you, man?

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