By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
A favorite blog topic among writers is writer’s block. I can’t im
agine how many articles I’ve seen on the topic…from the debate over whether it actually exists, to how to combat it if it does.
I believe that sometimes I’m experiencing more of writer’s hesitation than a writer’s block. My hesitation usually results from one of a couple of reasons.
One common reason for my hesitation is that my story has hit a snag of some kind. I’m reluctant to work on the story because there’s something wrong with it. Since I don’t allow myself to avoid writing, it means I have to immediately diagnose what’s wrong. Usually I’m finding the scene boring or redundant in some way, or else I realize something is off with my character motivations. During first drafts, I don’t fix problems. So I flag the part in the story where I’ve realized things were going wrong, make a note of the change(s) that I’m making going forward, and pick up with the story as if the problem had been fixed in the previous pages.Continue reading