What You’ll Find in This Newsletter:
Is writer’s block real?
An inspirational reading list (of varying lengths)
A writing exercise for you
Book updates
Some embarrassing outtakes for a 45 second video I filmed this week
Summer, summer, summer
The countdown to summer is on! Next week is my last full week of classes. My grades are due May 6th. And then…I’m free to just be a writer for nearly three full months.
This is essentially my brain right now:
While I am super duper excited to have some time off after the most chaotic semester of my life, I am also sad to say goodbye to the amazing humans I have had the pleasure of teaching this semester. The best part about my job (getting to meet so many amazing young adults) is also the worst part of my job (having to say goodbye to them.)
Teaching is a full-time job. But so is writing. Sometimes, I can’t manage both at the same time. When lent (and my social media hiatus) began, I had 48,000 words in LAST CALL AT THE LOCAL.
Nearly 40 days later, I now have…43,000 words.
Yes, you’ve read that correctly. I have 5,000 fewer words.
But that doesn't mean I’m moving backwards. All of it is progress. I would usually have wrapped up a full draft on a project by now, but this book wants to take it slow. I find myself writing a bit, rewriting a bigger bit, revising my outline and cutting, moving things around.
So I’m hopeful that by the time I do have a “full draft” it will be pretty solid. Because even though I don’t have a full “first draft,” much of what I do have is actually a fourth or fifth draft.
Thinking is writing. Deleting is writing. Rewriting is not a first draft.
If there is one thing I hope my ENG 101 students take from my class, it is that revising requires heavy lifting. When I give them feedback on drafts of their papers, it very rarely involves line edits. Revising is not editing. Revising is cutting a whole paragraph, page, or even scrapping it all and starting over.
But it isn’t really starting over. All the stuff you cut in revision isn’t “wrong” or “useless.” It’s simply not right. You had to write it to get to the next step. You had to write it to figure out what you really wanted to say. Writing a bunch of “wrong” words and scenes and chapters and drafts is simply the nature of the game. You don’t need to have it figured out before you start, or while you write a first draft, or hell, even a second or third.
All those “wrong” words are steps in the right direction, even when they don’t feel that way.
Okay, but what do you do when you have Writer’s Block?
Weeellllll, I don’t think Writer’s Block is a real thing.
But let’s define what I mean by Writer’s Block, because there ARE real things that can keep us from getting words down.
Sarah’s definition of “Writer’s Block”: A mysterious mental block that keeps you from being creative and getting words on the page.
It’s this mysterious and magical aspect of writer’s block that I don’t vibe with, because it makes writing seem like a mysterious and magical thing. Sometimes it feels that way, especially when you get into a flow state. I will often surprise myself on the page. Most times, I have no idea where my ideas come from. When I look at a final draft and think about where I started, I’m always in awe at the transformation that has taken place.
But this transformation isn’t mysterious, even though it feels that way sometimes. Writing isn’t mysterious. It is sitting down and writing a load of BS many times. It is a lot of trial and error. A lot of thinking. A lot of reorganizing and pulling strings. Think of a book like cross stitching. You, the reader, see only the front. But as the writer, I can see both the front and the back. I know what it took to get there.
Newer writers sometimes get frustrated when their early drafts don’t look like the finished books they love. Why can’t I write something this good? What am I doing wrong?
The only thing you are doing wrong is comparing a first draft (or second, or third) to a final draft.
I’ve said this a million times already, but it bears repeating.
EARLY DRAFTS DO NOT HAVE THE SAME PURPOSE AS A FINAL DRAFT. YOU CAN‘T COMPARE THEM.
I never really know what a book is about until draft two or three. I might think I know. But I’m always wrong, at least a little bit. Writing is thinking. Thinking is writing.
Writing, when it come down to it, is problem-solving (except you created the problem yourself).
Now that’s we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about what can get in the way of writing and creativity.
I don’t consider getting stuck on a project Writer’s Block. Because the problem isn’t that I “can’t write.” That might be a symptom, but it isn’t THE PROBLEM.
When I’m stuck, I have to figure out what the actual problem is, and thinking about these issues as Writer’s Block—as some mysterious force beyond our control—doesn’t prod us to look deeper and figure out the real issue (so we can fix it).
There are as many reasons for getting stuck as there are writers. But here are the 4 most common issues I find in my own writing practice.
I need to take a break.
If you are consistent in your writing practice and get stuck, you might just need to close the doc for a few days (or longer). The burnout doesn’t even need to be related to writing. Sometimes life is just too chaotic and sucks up some of that brain power you use for writing. For those of us on deadlines, taking breaks can feel indulgent. It makes us anxious. But often, taking a break can be more effective in the long run than pushing through. Taking breaks is part of the writing process. You can’t look at something with fresh eyes if you’re vision’s gone blurry from staring at a screen for too long.
There’s an issue with the story.
Sometimes we get hung up on our outlines. We try to execute it exactly the way the outline says. But if you are struggling to get words out and you don’t need a break, you might need to revisit your plan for that book/chapter/scene. This is the issue I encounter most frequently. If I’m not excited to write a scene, that usually means I need to either cut it or rethink it in some way. Some story issues I encounter include the following: the scene doesn’t have a real function within the overall story, the scene is unnecessary and a time-jump and/or one-sentence summary would be better, the scene has the exact same function as another scene and is unnecessary, the character motivation doesn’t line up with the action and/or is inconsistent with the overall story, the scene is boring, OR you are trying to do too much and the emotion would be more effective if you kept it simple, you need another character int he scene to come f*ck sh!t up (looking at you, Nina Lejeune).
I’m self-conscious.
When I’m writing, I keep an audience in mind, but it isn’t usually the wide-world of readers, or my agent, or my editor. I try to write with one person in mind: Beta Reader Dani. Why? One, she’s the first person who reads anything I write. Two, she is my ideal reader and well-versed in the genre. Three, I can’t please everyone no matter what I do, so why not write specifically for someone I know. Four, it makes my work more focused and specific. When I sit down to write a scene, I don’t think: What will readers think is funny? I think, What will Beta Reader Dani think is funny? Having just one person in mind can help keep the scaries at bay. Sometimes, though, this doesn’t work. I get stuck thinking about what others might think the story should be, rather than what I think it should be.
Speaking of Beta Reader Dani, here’s issue #4.
I need some outside eyes.
Common writing wisdom is to not show people your first drafts. What until you’ve polished it up! Well, if you are a perfectionist, that might be…never. Some people *cough, me* really need to talk out ideas, or simply need the motivation that comes with getting fun comments on a chapter. Sometimes, I know or suspect something is wrong, but I have no idea what it is, so I yeet that sucker to Beta Reader Dani and her comments can help me figure it out. She doesn’t usually say THIS IS WRONG, but I can tell based on her responses if I have a small issue or a big one (like, this whole chapter needs to go). I also voice note her with my ideas and getting her feedback on them is really useful! Also, I love getting comments on what she liked in a chapter. It really keeps me motivated to keep going (and to be completely real with you, I need external validation and praise like a plant needs sunlight. This is an awful personality trait in general, but especially in publishing).
Keep in mind for a lot of writers, critical feedback at an early stage of a project can be the opposite of motivating. That’s fine too. Some writers need to work away in secret for a while. But it isn’t a blanket rule. You might be an attention-seeking extrovert like me and need your BFF to tell you she likes your jokes while also telling you that scene you wrote is not cute but actually creepy.
An inspirational reading list
Part of staying inspired is refilling the creative well. Sometimes that is reading novels in your genre. Sometimes that is reading novels in another genre. Sometimes it is reading stuff about creativity and craft.
Here are a few of my favorite readings on creativity and craft to keep me inspired.
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (The book I read just before writing LLFS)
Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott (very short essay, but the whole book Bird by Bird is excellent.)
The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald J. Maas (Ya’ll already know I am obsessed with this book. It ALWAYS gets me out of a rut with its excellent writing exercises.)
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
A writing exercise
Take a scene you are struggling with and do 1 (or more) of the following.
Add another character. Someone who can f*ck sh!t up.
Change the setting.
Put something in your character’s hands (of they don’t have something already).
Have your character find something they didn’t expect.
Have your character do the most wildly outrageous thing they could possibly do in this moment. (If it is too wild, you can always cut it later, don’t be afraid for your character to do some unlikable stuff…like steal dollar bills from the wall of a dive bar…LOOKING AT YOU, NINA LEJEUNE.)
If you try it, please let me know how it goes!
Less than four months until LUCK AND LAST RESORTS is out in the world!
I answered some final proofreaders questions yesterday and was able to fix a timeline error I didn’t think I’d have the chance to. Yay!
I got my marketing and publicity plan this week. (Also yay!)
I filmed a fun snippet about the book for a Summer Reading round-up for a news station in Jacksonville, FL. (Not sure when that airs, though.)
I had some hilarious outtakes for said video which you can find here.
That’s all for now! See you again soon!
XO, Sarah