Almost always, when writers talk about being stuck, we use negative language to discuss it. The “must make progress” vibe in us is quite aggressive. And I get that. When we don’t know what’s happening in our brains, we might be tempted to assume that not making forward progress is evidence of something being wrong.
But once we know what’s happening (especially if we have Communication, Maximizer, or any of the Thinking Strengths), we know being stuck can be a good thing.
And if you haven’t considered this before, then let’s talk about it.
The thing we are creating, as a creative writer, is something that has never existed before. We are not building widgets out of other parts. But let’s go ahead and use the factory metaphor for a second.
When you set up a factory system to put together a widget, you first have to make all the elements that you will later assemble. So there’s a bunch of work that needs to happen before the widget can get assembled.
Yet most writers expect their work at their computer to be all assembling. And no “making of the elements.” We often sit down and just expect the words to flow out, as though we’d already made all the elements of the widget. But most of us need to do some kind of making of the elements as we write.
We know that. On some level, we know that the playlist can’t be “all rise” (or at least, we might give intellectual assent to that), but we still get frustrated when we don’t make word count progress consistently (or sometimes just at all).
I want to encourage us to start seeing the stuck times as both beneficial and necessary. It’s the reason why I made the Stuck List originally, and now why I make the Stuck List book and the cards. If we can see being stuck as beneficial, and embrace the moment for what it is (the brain making the elements that it needs to assemble the story), then we can move more quickly and easily through the process of making the elements.
Of course, there are a bunch of reasons why we might be frustrated with this, not the least of which is being on deadline, but it’s very important to change our mindset about being stuck while we’re not on deadline so that when we do get on deadline, we don’t put undue pressure on ourselves to never be stuck.
What I’d love to see, because of this book and because of these discussions we’re having on the Patreon, is an increased capacity to embrace being stuck as the process of “creating” the elements we need to assemble the story. To see it as a positive. To imagine differently than what we’ve imagined before.
So here’s your homework.
The next time you are stuck, I want you to look in the mirror at your brain and say, “thank you, brain, for creating the elements of the story for me.”
I know. I know. You’ll feel weird. But just consider it.
Everything that happens in our mind has at least a beneficial root. If we can imagine differently than we had been imagining before, we can change our experience of the thing. The more resistance we have to the thing, the more frustrated we get. But the more we accept the thing, the quicker we do the work to get through the process.
That’s what I want. For us to have a different imagination about what being stuck means. That’s it.
If you do your homework, let me know how it goes. Even if all you do is don’t get mad at your brain for being stuck, and instead just practice an attitude of thankfulness for that moment, because it means your brain is doing the work to create the elements you can later assemble. Even that little tiny internal shift can make a difference. It can matter both in productivity, in terms of speed, and also in the friction we feel allowing ourselves to start executing on the stuck list stuff.
I just want us to have safe passage through these books. And to hopefully enjoy the process as much as we can.
I’m having one of those days.
Thanking my brain for being stuck and soothing some stress. But it’s ok to be stuck. It’s good to be stuck. And I’m going to go do the things I need to do in order to move back into production. Time to do the work.
<3 Becca <3
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