When the Energy Goes Away

What do you do when you’ve gotten pumped up, motivated, inspired about a plot or characters for a novel, and then before you can finish, the energy goes away? I have more unfinished manuscripts than I have finished. As I explained in a previous post, I’ve had to break up with many of my novels, hence they go unfinished. The inspiration is gone. Poof! What I feel when I get to that ‘breaking up’ point is desolation, a feeling of failure that beckons that inner critic, paralyzing me from beginning yet another novel that I won’t finish.

I am reading Write Is a Verb: Sit Down, Start Writing, No Excuses by Bill Hannon. A quote that he provides by writer Sandy Beadle really stirred me. In this particular chapter, Hanlon is encouraging us to take Baby Steps in getting our novel written. He lists possible reasons why manuscripts go unfinished and emphasizes that Procrastination is a huge catalyst. But the other reason that Hanlon lists hit me straight between the eyes. “The task seems so overwhelming to beginners that they sometimes avoid engaging in it.” Previously, I would get started, but looking at the picture as a whole paints a long road with no ending that eventually deflates me, and that’s when procrastination enters. When Mr. Procrastination sets his bags at my door, weeks, and in some cases months by and my energy for that particular story goes away. Sandy Beadle  articulates this cycle brilliantly in this quote:
“I’ve been struggling with  Bookus Interruptus for years. My next book got waylaid when the energy was still there, then the energy went away, it has taken far too long, and I really lost focus.” ~Sandy Beadle

You cannot heal without first identifying the injury. After reading Bill Hanlon’s 2nd chapter, specifically Sandy Beadle’s quote, I recognized my injury. Like Sandy, I would be rolling along and suddenly crash into that rock that prevented me from seeing most of my stories to completion. The energy had gone away.

Bill offers some good advice for avoiding that rock. TAKE BABY STEPS. One piece at a time. So instead of looking down that long road, I’ll just look to the next block, and then the next block until the road behind me becomes the long winding road, and the road in front of me becomes a short driveway. Bill suggests dividing the project into bite-sized chunks:

 “After you make an outline, make a more detailed outline–as detailed as you can make it–with ideas for anecdotes, quotations, exercises, scenes, plot points, which characters are in the scene, where it takes place, and so on. Then Transfer each of those detailed points onto index cards that you can carry with you everywhere and write on. Keep them bundled with a rubber band in chapter or section order.

If my writing injury sounds even remotely similar to yours, you’ll benefit from getting a copy of Write Is a Verb: Sit Down, Start Writing, No Excuses!

Photo Credit: Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Namaste & Happy Writing,

Trina