What to do when you're stuck
“Writer’s block” is one name for a lot of different problems. Which is why the usual advice (“just write!”) works for some people and makes others feel worse. So before you do anything, figure out which kind of stuck you are.
You feel vaguely blocked, but you’re not against writing
You sit down, you’re willing, and nothing comes. This one is usually a plot problem pretending to be a writing problem: somewhere in your head you don’t know what happens next (or you know and you refuse to believe it because it means saying goodbye to that perfect outline).
Pause the draft and go back to plotting. Talk it out with a friend. Or with the chat: in Ghostkey, Phantom Memory has read your book and can think through the next scene with you. Say the problem out loud, and half the time you’ll hear the answer before anyone replies.
You’re against writing. Thinking about it stresses you out
That’s burnout. Yes, even if you’re not doing anything all day.
Burnout is about stress, not about how much you work. Here’s the simple version of what’s going on. Stress sets off your body’s alarm system, and cortisol is one of the hormones it releases. It’s built for short emergencies: the threat comes, you deal with it, the alarm switches off. When the stress never resolves, the alarm never switches off. Over time the system wears down, and researchers have found that people with burnout often show a disrupted cortisol rhythm, not just a high one. That’s how you end up exhausted, flat and unmotivated when you haven’t done anything.
You’re being that mean, demanding boss to yourself.
So resting from writing isn’t enough, because writing isn’t the problem. The stress is. What helps is closing the loop: physical activity, sleep, time with people who make you feel safe, a good cry. Emily and Amelia Nagoski call it completing the stress cycle, and their book Burnout is a good place to start.
The writing will still be there. Come back to it gently, in small sessions, with no word count attached.
Life is loud: the news, your family, everything
Counterintuitively, don’t stop writing.
When everything is heavy, you need something that’s just for you, and writing can be that. Carve out a small space away from whatever’s worrying you, even twenty minutes, and protect it.
And check whether you’ve been taking everyone’s problems on your shoulders. Some of them aren’t yours to carry.
It’s a new book, and you don’t know where to start
Start in the middle.
Write the scene you’re most excited about, the one that made you want to write this book. You’ll learn who the characters are by watching them in it, and the opening is much easier to write once you know what it’s opening to. Nobody reads your drafting order.
People are waiting for your next book, and you don’t know if you can deliver
Readers asking for the next book is a lovely problem to have. It can still freeze you solid.
Turn off the noise. Block social media while you draft, mute the countdown, stop reading reviews. The readers will still be there. They want the book, not a daily update, and the book won’t get written while you’re refreshing a comment section.
Stuck is normal. Staying stuck usually means you’re treating the wrong problem. And if your goal is to write faster, getting unstuck quickly is half of it. The other half is in this post.