How I got unstuck
After staying stuck for far too long, I got unstuck by abandoning the project…for now.
Here’s my thought process:
I learned SO much through the process of that first draft, the first fast edit process, and a decent way into the second draft. These are the two key learnings that came out of it:
I, personally, should never stop drafting. I don’t always have to be writing the next big project. But based on who I am as a person and who I want to be as a writer, I cannot lose the momentum of every day (and I do truly mean every day) drafting.
I have to actually take a break between drafting and editing. I skipped that this time, thinking I’d be fine. I was not fine. I stayed too close to the manuscript and didn’t allow time for my revision process to see or solve problems. Instead, I found problems as I started the second draft, making me realize I’d need an extensive third draft to fix these continued developmental problems, and that was so discouraging that I didn’t want to keep going.
So in a sense, I’m rewinding the clock and pretending I JUST finished the first draft and instead of launching into edits and revisions, I set aside that project for another one.
I’m building this process as I go, trying to follow it a little better each time. But I can say that for the last 15 days I’ve:
Written a minimum of 800 words per day.
Gotten to almost the 30K mark in the story.
Stayed excited for the story and clear on the ending.
Kept my story Bible (a spreadsheet) up to date with random threads of ideas/edits rather than letting them halt the drafting process.
Started a note on “how to fix Project 1” and dumped the lovely thoughts that are now free to arrive at any time into that note.
I’m sure I’ll get stuck again. But here’s hoping I don’t get stuck at the SAME point again, because I’d prefer to be the type of writer, and person, who doesn’t need to learn the same lesson twice.
