Hopefully you’re all still riding on the same wave of enthusiasm you enjoyed at the beginning of this process, and you’re meeting your writing goals more often than not.
If not, the last few chapters have concentrated on any potential problem that might be gumming up the works, with suggestions how to overcome any perceived “writer’s block.”
You’ll notice that I refer to the term in quotations. I think it’s pretty clear that I dismiss this perceived evil as the paper dragon that it is. When you’re a professional writer, you don’t have time to entertain writer’s block. It’s more like a writer’s pause, usually indicating that there’s a problem somewhere that you need to fix. Instead of a block, it becomes an opportunity.
So we’re not going to say that you’re blocked. We’re going to say that you’re “stuck.” If you’re stuck, you can get unstuck. You just have to know how, which is what this chapter is here to teach you. There are a lot of things you can do to get yourself “unstuck.” Much of what we’re going to cover actually falls under the heading of prep work, so you can get all this done ahead of time next year, which should make the process a lot easier for you.
In the meantime, there’s no law or rule that says any of the following has to be done prior to starting your manuscript. If you’re stuck, these little exercises can help you approach your Work in Progress (WIP) in a new way.
It will even help you learn how to pitch your story later, when it’s time to shop it around.
But, first things first, you need to finish your manuscript.
We’ve already talked about outlines, which I strongly favor whenever writing anything on a deadline. If you have to be to an appointment on time and you can’t be late, you’re not going to rely on pure instinct to take you someplace you’ve never been. You’re going to get directions you need so you can navigate efficiently.
Same principle works with the writing. With an outline, you have a roadmap that will prevent you from getting lost.
And you don’t have to do this prior to writing your WIP, by the way. You haven’t “missed” your opportunity to utilize this tool. You can do it at any point, for any reason.
I said before that my books take on a life of their own when I’m writing, always diverging (sometimes wildly) from the outline. I’ve actually had to scrap outlines and redo them due to these changes. If I’m unclear what my next chapter should accomplish because my characters have gone off script, I take the time to outline the rest of the story all over again, starting where I am.
Yes, it takes time, but that time will pass anyway. Might as well be proactive, to make the rest of my time more efficiently spent.
In fact the outline for this project has been very fluid as I try to organize my thoughts in a way that makes the most sense for anyone who is trudging along the Nano trail with me. I want to give you the information you need right when you’re likely to need it the most, hence why most of the “writer’s block” stuff comes right around the time you will likely face the behemoth that is Act II.
As you can see, I've already gone off the outline. I'll likely keep going off the outline, considering most of those topics were mere suggestions how to get from one step to the other. Some topics I've covered well, and will shed future chapters that discuss them in favor of something I haven't yet covered. Since nothing we do is set in stone, I can amend accordingly. I can ditch what doesn't work. I can add what does.
An outline doesn't crush your creativity. It gives you new ways to approach it. It works in conjunction with your manuscript, as fluid as the book itself.
It’s never too late to outline and it’s never unwise to outline. So if you’re stuck, you might want to give it a try, even if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Seat-of-Your-Pantser. Since outlines are what you do solely for you, it can even be your own little secret. Who cares how you get there, as long as you do?
Look into the future of your story and just jot down what you feel needs to happen, chapter by chapter. If you take the hour or so it takes to do this (depending on how much you have left written that you need to outline,) it will save hours of frustration later.
And besides… you’re “blocked” from writing anything else. Might as well find some way to be productive, right?
This is the work part of the job. You don’t just get to take a vacay because your muse does. She’s a flaky bitch who will leave you hanging when it’s most inconvenient. This is your chance to show her who’s really in control. In the end, it’s your butt on the line. Readers, agents, publishes and producers don’t give a rat’s ass about your Muse’s schedule. Time is money. How you spend that time is what makes you valuable as a professional.
The clock still ticks away whether she shows up or not. You can either use it to your advantage or you can lean on that old standby “writer’s block.” It’s such a well-known beastie that no one will judge you for bumping up against it, or using as an excuse to stop writing. It’s an inevitable part of the process, right?
For hobbyists, maybe. Working writers, not so much.
If you want this to be your job, then approach it as such. You don’t just call it a day when a problem arises at “your real job.” You fix the problem. And you get better at your job every single time you do.
Writing is no different. It forces you to deal with your creative difficulty in creative ways, which will hone your skills as a professional.
This is why I say screw “writer’s block.” It doesn’t exist aside from an excuse not to write. For the next 18 days, it is no longer a part of your vocabulary.
Instead we’re going to focus on workarounds. Some are tedious. Some are fun. But all of them force you to get more involved with your material so that you can better communicate it to the world.
Typically I would recommend doing these things before you ever start your book, but like I said, there’s no real time table. These tools are (mostly) for you, so you get to use them however you choose.
Let’s get started. Don’t be scared. It’ll be okay.
START SMALL.
Since you need to be very clear on the story you’re telling, it’s always a good idea to figure out what exactly you’re trying to say. There are some promotional things that will help you pinpoint and identify the main hook, that thing that turns you on and keeps you invested along the journey. The first is the pitch, which usually works out to be a sentence or two.
For many a writer, myself included, the shorter format the writing, the more stressful it is to write. This proves true with a pitch, where so much is riding on a snappy little two sentence tease, the whole purpose of which is to entice one into wanting to know more.
Usually it’s directed at the people who could put money behind the idea and make it a huge success, but the challenge of writing a pitch, (i.e., breaking your story down to its fundamental hook,) can help keep you focused on what is marketable about your story. Essentially you’re crafting what will become your patented response whenever anyone asks, “You’ve written a book? Cool! What’s it about?”
You could tell them everything, or you could give them a tiny little tidbit, forcing them to check out the book if they really want to know more. If you plan to sell your books on the marketplace someday, this will be a skill you need to develop early and well.
If you’re in the early stages of development, this can often show you if the story is even worth pursuing in the first place, based on how easy it would be to sell. Not every idea is marketable, and you generally won’t know which is which until you’ve developed your pitch.
If you’ve worked with an agent, you know what I mean. I’ve pitched several ideas that I thought were killer to my agent, only to be reined in with the reality of the industry. Since I’m a hybrid author, who sells both traditionally and independently, I don’t usually stop there. I pitch my idea to those closest to me, and gauge its marketability by their response. If they’re excited about a project, it gets me excited about a project.
This is true, also, when someone pitches an idea to me. When you’re a working writer, you become an idea “catch-all” for people who want to tell stories, but leave the “writing” part up to the professionals.
When I was approached by a director to write a vampire script, he presented it as a pitch. He wanted “Se7en” meets “Interview with a Vampire.” If you’re familiar with these movies, this kind of pitch gives an immediately image of what is expected of the story. This got me excited enough to pursue where it was going, by asking those important “What if?” questions.
Where there are possibilities, there are opportunities.
If you know what makes your story marketable, what gets you excited to tell it, then you can redirect your focus on those things that will strengthen it when the time comes to sell it to someone else.
A step above the pitch is the blurb, that 200-word overview of your story that you’d find on the back of the book. Blurbs come with their own complications. You have a few more words to convey what makes your story stand out from the rest, but often there still aren’t enough words to fully cover what makes your story special, at least to you.
You’re not unlike the excited new mom with dozens of photos on her phone, detailing every single thing her newborn does that is so amazing. To the stranger passing her on the street, they don’t care to know all these details.
Same holds true for the book.
Trying to whittle anything down to a 200-word blurb in order to sell it, particularly when it fills an entire book, will make you rethink writer’s block in longer prose. Instead of worrying you won’t fill the 200-word requirement, you’ll probably find that you have to work really hard to limit your story to its baser selling points. It’s a skill that demands experience to master, so get used to this part of the process, no matter if you write the blurb before, during or after you’ve completed your manuscript.
You’ll have to do it every single time, regardless.
It still boils down to this: What makes your story worth telling? Reignite the flame on your own rocket by selling your idea first to you.
THINK LONG TERM.
If you’re one of those Seat-of-Pantsers who absolutely, positively, unequivocally will not outline, think instead of tools you can use long term, when it comes time to sell your work. A common tool that you will likely be asked to use is a synopsis. This breaks down your story to its core, without bothering with all the minutiae it takes to bring it to life on the page. You’re not worried about details or dialog here, just the main parts of the story that take you from point A to point B. Odds are you’re going to be asked to write this whenever you send your work out to agents, publishers or producers, who don’t have a lot of time to spend to read an entire book. They want a complete overview (including the ending) to see if the project merits any more of their precious time.
Many writers write the synopsis first, just so they can have that overview themselves. It’s not a detailed outline, but it’s still a pretty good roadmap that can keep you focused and on point throughout the writing process. Aim for a page, but if you get really ambitious you can extend it up to five pages. The most effective synopses will avoid adding all the minor details, like secondary characters that don’t play into the main narrative. Instead, focus on the meat and potatoes of your story. Use active voice. Write sparsely and clear. Detail only those emotions that advance the story. Assert your own personality without being too cutesy in effort to demonstrate “voice.” Don’t use this tool to “sell” the hook, or to tease. This is just a nuts and bolts overview of what makes your story work.
As such, it gives you a pretty clear idea what doesn’t. You will be able to spot any glaring problems with your plotting right in the synopsis. You’ll see what works best in what order. If you need to, write the main scenes or plot points on index cards so that you can rearrange them prior to typing out your synopsis.
I’ll warn you ahead of time, synopses are not fun to write. It’s a little more work than your outline, which you’ve done mostly for you, so it can be as ugly as you like. The synopsis is a selling tool, which is used in place of your brilliant manuscript to get someone to fall in love with it. That’s a lot of pressure. It still all comes back to this: how do you sell your book to you?
If you can’t, that might be part of the reason why you’re “stuck.”
DIG DEEPER.
Another tool that writers use prior to starting a project is a thorough character breakdown for each character. You can find templates online, which ask detailed questions about your characters in order to bring them to life. You may never use all the things you discover about your character in this process, but it more fully forms these stick figures into fleshed out, three-dimensional people. Aside from basic appearance, such as eye color, hair color, height and weight, deeper questions not only tell you about your character but offer you plenty of opportunity to “show” rather than “tell” the reader about them, which can inspire key scenes throughout your book.
Does your character have a tattoo? If so, what kind? What does it mean? When did they get it, and why? What kinds of clothes does your character wear? Is he or she fashionable, keeping up with the trends? Or does he or she flout convention, right down to every stitch of clothing?
Do they have an accent specific to where they were raised? Is this a working class Boston accent? A lazy Southern drawl? A terse, no-nonsense Jersey accent? Is their vocabulary littered with slang, or more formal, denoting a higher education or upper class upbringing?
When is their birthday? What astrological sign are they born under? Are they a passionate, mysterious, calculating Scorpio? Or a sweet, more docile Pisces homebody? Do they burst onto the scene like an Aries or a Taurus, or seek the spotlight like a Leo? Are they control freaks like a Capricorn or Aquarius? Or a flighty, more unpredictable Gemini?
Even if you don’t believe in astrology, these archetypes put the flesh on your character’s bones. If you’re writing a romance, go online and put the two signs together to see how they might interact with each other, so you can seek out that all-important conflict that drives the story.
Again, you may use none of this in the narrative. Maybe you’re the only one who knows what sign your characters were born under, or what makes them act the way that they do. In my last series, I made my lead, Devlin Masters, a Scorpio, which fed into his possessiveness and his secretive, manipulative behavior. It made him a master of sex, but one helluva difficult stallion to corral. I only mention it once or twice, first when I show his Scorpion tattoo, and the second during a notable scene where he takes a Scorpion shot in Las Vegas, to demonstrate how far he was willing to go to go off the grid. (I started small.) Even though I know my heroine’s sign, and how that might make their chemistry more combustible, I never spell it out in the book.
You’re not going to use every single thing you learn, but it’s helpful to know it. These little details can inspire scenes that you didn’t see coming in the outline, such as the Scorpion shot, which developed character.
If you’re one of those Pantsers who wants nothing whatsoever to do with formal tools that stifle the creative flow, like a detailed character analysis, perhaps a better way to go is to “interview” your characters. This allows you to create on the fly, with your character fully in charge of telling you who he is. Ask your character deeper questions, like favorite childhood memory, worst moment of humiliation, ambitions from childhood, best friend in childhood, first love. These events shaped your character. You may never need that kind of detail to tell your current story, but it will offer shade and dimension, which will make your character more authentic and dynamic.
If you’re stuck, allow your own creation to “unstick” you. Your story is a living, breathing thing, and the first draft is your exploratory process to get to know why it needs to breathe at all. Later edits will trim the fat. Right now it’s your job to get everything in place that makes your story as clear to you as it can possibly be.
As you gain experience, you will likely lean on these tools less and less, but they are great for beginners to keep you on track, Pantsers and non-Pantsers alike, particularly if you’ve undertaken the challenge of Nanowrio. There’s no time for writer’s block when you need to cross the finish line in 30 days. Staying blocked is no longer an option for you. When you’re writing on a deadline, sometimes you have to approach your work from alternate angles, and that’s okay. As long as it more fully develops your story, none of the time spent exploring the details is wasted, even if it doesn’t make it to the final draft.
Instead, turn your “blocks” turn into opportunities. If you’re blocked, it’s because your instincts are telling you something isn’t working. It’s up to you to dig a little deeper and find out what that is.
Every single day, make it a point to get back into your WIP. Reread your last chapter if you need to, just to get back “in the zone.” Think about your characters. Wonder what they’re up to. Make it your focus, make it your priority.
You’ll likely find that your Muse is more likely to show up when you do. So report for duty, soldier. You still have eighteen days left to go.
Started First Draft: November 12, 2015 8:50am PST
Paused First Draft: November 12, 2015 9:20am PST
Resumed First Draft: November 12, 2015 3:19pm PST
Completed First draft: November 12, 2015 4:24pm PST
Word Count of first draft: 2,432
Completed revisions: November 12, 2015 5:49pm PST
Updated WC: 3,213/48,813
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