The three things that get in the way of writing progress (and what to do about them)

If you’ve been struggling to move forward with your work in progress, or wanting to start a new project but never quite settling on a way in, you know how isolating that can feel. Writing is a solitary journey most of the time, which can give the impression that everyone else is finding it so much easier, especially when our own journey has ground to a halt.

Sound familiar? I'm a writer with over 20 years of publishing credits under my belt, and I can tell you with absolute confidence that this happens to all of us at some time or another. And, even if the situation feels hopeless, there's every chance that this, too, will pass.

The key to fighting back against a writing slump is knowing what's causing it in the first place. Read on to discover what's holding you back – and what you can do to turn that around.

1. Discouragement

What it looks like:

"Ugh, my writing is terrible. I can’t do this. Everything I write is so banal. There’s no story here. This has been done a thousand times before. It’s unpublishable. It’s not working. It’s too hard. I can’t do this."

​Honestly, this is a script that all of us will read from at some point. The plus side is, it’s helping us to constantly evolve our craft, to challenge ourselves, to never stop learning. The major downside is that negative self-feedback can very easily stop writing in its tracks. If that voice gets too loud, it’s very difficult to ignore the creeping doubt that follows in its wake. When discouragement with your writing becomes overwhelming, it’s hard to see a reason to carry on with your project.

What to do about it:

1. Understand that this is something that happens to every writer. As Thomas Mann once said, “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” This comes with the territory. It’s okay to write terrible words some days, as long as you keep writing. This is the first draft; it’s allowed to have lots of terrible words in it. On that note…
2. As Ernest Hemingway once said, “The first draft of anything is shit.” I might put it slightly more gently than that, but he wasn’t wrong. Your first draft, almost by definition, will not be publishable. Getting discouraged because it’s not publishable is missing the point of the first draft. Accept that this is your “chuck it at the wall and see if it sticks” version and let go of the need to get it right first time. Give your writing room to suck at times. You can and will sort it out on Draft Two.
3. Pick a name for that little voice that’s saying hateful things to you inside your head and give it a persona. I know. It sounds crazy. But this tip was given to me by someone who knew whereof she spoke and I have duly passed it on wherever I notice Imposter Syndrome raising its ugly head – and it very rarely fails. Give your Imposter Syndrome a name and a back story, understand that he/she/it is only trying to help, and politely but firmly tell him or her to BACK OFF. Externalising it means you can talk back to it. It sounds bonkers, but it works.

"If we wait until it feels easy to write, we’ll probably never write."

2. Distraction

What it looks like:
“Okay, today’s the day. I’m going to sit down and write 1500 words on this long-neglected project of mine. I’m going to work through this knotty plot issue, fix the problems with the central conflict, finally settle on the question of my main character’s… Ooh, that gives me a fantastic idea for another story…!”

Alternative flavours include:

•  “I’ll just double check my email in case I’ve heard back from that agent…”
• “If I don’t research every minute detail of late 16th century French grape varieties I cannot possibly write this scene.”
• “I should probably have another quick read through of Chapter 1 to make sure the dialogue is pitch perfect in every respect.”
• “What if the main character was actually a werewolf… or an alien… or a time traveller… or a nun… or a werewolf…”
• “Actually, I’ve been meaning to spring clean the attic for months…”

What to do about it:

Sound familiar? Sometimes writing is transcendent and hours pass in a blissful blink of the eye while worlds ride through our fingers onto the screen before us. Other times, it’s really boring and we just can’t really be bothered. Other other times, it’s too huge and scary and soul-crushingly terrifying, and our lizard brains invent multiple perfectly good excuses for us not to do it.

However.

If we wait until it feels easy, we’ll probably never write. The trick is finding a way to make writing feel safe or possible on the days when it feels anything but.

1. Write offline. That doesn’t solve the motivation issue (more on that in a second), but it does remove the ability to just click on Facebook for a minute – two minutes, tops. It also significantly reduces your ability to disappear down a Wikipedia research rabbit hole, because encyclopaedias just aren’t the same.
2. SURPRISE! Writing time. Catch yourself off guard. If 15 minutes appears out of nowhere, yes, you could absolutely scroll Instagram reels for a bit. Or you could write 300 words that you weren’t expecting to write, so you had no opportunity to build them up into this colossal THING that had to be done. Writing in 15-minute bursts, 300 words at a time, will still get your novel written faster than waiting for the perfect moment to write.
3. Pomodoro. Pomodoro is my silver bullet when I have writing time but no motivation. Sitting down to write 1500 words is hard. A 3-hour chunk of writing time might pretend to be pure bliss, but it’s actually pretty intimidating when it rolls around. Pomodoro takes the pressure off and makes it so much easier to get started: instead of 1500 words over 3 hours, all you have to do is write for 25 minutes. 15, if you’re really feeling stuck. 10, if it’s one of those days. It breaks writing time into manageable chunks and mini-goals that feel achievable. 
4. Start an ideas spreadsheet. This one is for the writers who are beset by torrents of inspiration and struggle to hold focus on any one project to completion. You need to make space for the new shiny fun story prospects, because our brains are naturally drawn towards new shiny fun things, but you also need to not make so much space for them that they become another half-started, unfinished piece. An ideas spreadsheet does both. It allows you to remove the prompt from your head and put it somewhere safe – releasing your brain from the need to hold it close – and it allows you to flesh out the skeleton with broad-strokes plot points as they come to you, in a document that is, quite specifically, not a piece of creative writing and so does not compete with your work in progress for your creative focus. 

3. Difficulty

What it looks like:

A wild plot hole emerges. A character walks into a room and says something you had no idea they were going to say, and which changes what you thought was happening and what needs to happen next. You hit a plot milestone and have no idea where to take your narrative next. Or any one of an almost infinite number of possible writing scenarios that leave you staring, blank-faced, at your screen with a creeping sense of dread and no clear path forward and out of the mire.

What to do about it:

There are a couple of things that I almost never recommend to writers when they’re stuck, but that “almost” is doing some serious heavy lifting, because this sort of scenario is one of the reasons I never say “never.”

1. Could you possibly be a plotter who just hasn’t tried plotting? Far be it from me to ever suggest a writer is doing anything wrong by writing to find the story, but if you’re finding yourself regularly in difficulty without a narrative pathway, then it could very well be that the writing process you’ve been using isn’t actually the right process for you. If the idea of plotting in advance sends you into a spiral of recrimination and despair, don’t feel pressured to try it. But if you’re interested in exploring the process, Mary Carroll Moore’s W-Plot structure is a very accessible entry point into the wonderful world of architecting.
2. Take a step back and evaluate. Trying to write on regardless when you encounter a difficulty is like trying to keep running a marathon when your blood sugar has tanked. You don’t need to quit, but you do need to address the problem. In this case, you almost certainly need to do some ancillary work around your novel to isolate the cause of the current issue and institute a fix. Is it a lack of character knowledge? Do you need to reconsider a plot point? Has the narrative gone in a direction you weren't expecting? All of these things are fixable (see point 3 below), but you need to let the panic clear first.
3. Freewriting can be a powerful tool for getting yourself unstuck in this sort of situation. For plot issues, you start with the issue and just keep writing until you work your way clear. What do you know about the plot as it is? What is it that’s bothering you about it? Why is it bothering you? Where are the cracks making themselves visible? In what way are they causing problems for the narrative? This process also works for character problems, narrative problems – in fact, I've never not solved a writing issue this way
   
4. Take a break (but just a small one). This is fixable, but it feels pretty insurmountable in the moment. That sick, empty feeling in the pit of your stomach as you realise something fundamental is broken in your story world is deeply demoralising and you probably do need to stop working on the piece while you gear yourself up to deal with it. Put a time limit on it – no more than twice your usual interval between writing sessions – and then come back gently. Pomodoro your troubleshooting session. If it feels like it’s getting nowhere, break and do some more tomorrow. Keep coming back to it, though. Too much time away from a story, particularly when you’ve hit a difficulty, makes it harder to come back.​​

It will be okay and you will get through this

Every time this has happened to me, it's felt like the end of my writing journey. Every time this has happened to me, I've found my way back. You will too. 

It's hard now, but it will get easier. Adjust your expectations of yourself accordingly. Small bursts (even five minutes at a time) will get you back on track much more reliably than waiting until this passes and trying to dive back in. Even writing weekly will do the job, though I’d suggest that’s probably the longest you’d want to leave between sessions. Regular writing sessions, even if they’re short, keep your project fresh in your mind and make it easier to pick it up again at the next one.

You've got this. Stick two fingers in the air at writing issues and just keep coming back. It’s easier said than done, of course – but so’s writing, and, according to Thomas Mann, that’s how we know we're doing it right.