At some stage in your writing, you may find that you’re stuck and having trouble moving forward. This is something that happens to many writers whether they’re fiction or nonfiction writers.
Now there are many reasons for this, some of the reasons I have come across are:
- Not knowing your topic well enough
- More research being required
- Not enough world building
- Characters not fully developed
- Not being inspired by your story or topic
What you need to do is work out why you have become stuck and if there is anything you can do to get your manuscript moving again.
Inspiration
If you’re no longer inspired about your story or topic you will find it really hard to continue writing on that project. To complete any manuscript you need to be passionate about your story or topic. It can’t just be a topic or genre that you feel will make money. If you’re thinking more about money than writing this will come through on your manuscript. It will end up lacking the quality of a project that was done with passion because you don’t care enough to give it the attention it needs.
If you felt passion for the project when you started but have found your attention wandering to a shiny new project, it is best to put the old project aside for a day or two and take down notes for the new project. This way you can go back to completing your previous project knowing that the notes you have taken for the shiny new project will be waiting for you. Don’t just stop your previous project cold and start the new project as you will find yourself in an endless cycle of half-finished projects with none of them being completed.
More Research? ARGH
What do you do if you don’t know your project well enough or it needs more research? It’s simple really; write down what you do know in as much detail as possible. Even if it is something along the lines of ‘I know I need to do more research on what this bar was like in 1921’ then highlight or mark that section so that you can come back to it and continue with writing the rest of the manuscript.
Characterisation
If the characters are your problem try writing a character profile for each character in your manuscript include headings like hair and eye colour, weight, height, education, work and anything else that will help you picture the character in your mind – things like clothes, likes, hates, etc.
World Building
For world building issues you can write headings such as weather, trees, animals and people on separate pages and then write down as much as you can about each one. Keep going until you feel you have explored each element in your created world.
When you feel like you have overcome your issues with your current work-in-progress make sure you return to writing the manuscript instead of leaving it unfinished.
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