| So you have started your book (congratulations!) | | | | readers will call you out in a second, and you will |
| but now you seem to be stuck, have hit a wall, | | | | lose them for future books. At the same time, |
| and can't figure out why. No worries. Everyone | | | | don't spend untold amounts of hours researching |
| hits this wall at some point or another. If you | | | | when you should be writing. You may fool |
| need a little help writing a novel, something just to | | | | yourself into thinking you are working eight hours |
| get you going and motivated again, use these 5 | | | | a day writing a novel when in fact you are |
| tips to get unstuck and finish your book in record | | | | spending one hour writing and seven hours |
| time. | | | | researching. Further, stay off the Internet unless |
| 1. Become at peace with the possibility of | | | | you need to look up something. The 'net is a |
| rejection. Fear of your manuscript (and ultimately | | | | massive time waster (ask me how I know). |
| you) being rejected sometimes can paralyze you | | | | 4. Finish what you start. Don't become interested |
| to the point that you become "blocked." You are | | | | in a new idea when you have not completed your |
| not really having a block but you are just afraid to | | | | first one yet. This usually happens when we are |
| go on. You see, as long as you are in the process | | | | at a tough part of the book. It is becoming |
| of writing and have not completed your novel, | | | | difficult and so you begin to daydream about your |
| you cannot be judged, and therefore no rejection | | | | "next" book. Stop and back up, and get this one |
| can occur. Decide that you will not worry about | | | | completed before moving on. Untold numbers of |
| what will happen once you finish your book, and | | | | books are wasting away in closets and drawers |
| just soldier on. | | | | because their authors began to think of other |
| 2. Don't get caught up with perfectionism. I am | | | | projects while still working on previous novels. |
| guilty of this, I like things to be perfect first time | | | | 5. Write down your goals. It may seem okay that |
| around. You may find yourself going back and | | | | you know in your head what your writing goal is |
| fixing spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, | | | | for this novel, but it makes a difference when |
| spacing, hyphens, names, places, etc. Stop and | | | | you see it on paper. Post it where you can see it |
| think about whether what you are doing is really | | | | every day on your desk. What is your goal? One |
| important to the story at this time. Can it be | | | | page a day? Five pages a day? A certain number |
| done later? It is much easier to go back and | | | | of words per day? Or maybe to complete your |
| rewrite than it is to write a novel the first time all | | | | book by a certain time. You will be pleasantly |
| the way through. So get it done, and then once | | | | surprised how much it helps to write this down. |
| finished, go back and rewrite. | | | | Keeping your eyes on the prize will assist you in |
| 3. Don't try to write about something you are not | | | | writing your book, and you will be done in no time. |
| familiar with unless you have researched. Your | | | | |