1. The author is working on too many projects to finish one. It’s far better to complete one manuscript than to go halfway on two. Most publishers won’t consider an unfinished novel manuscript from an inexperienced author.

2. The author is unwilling and/or unable to set time aside for writing. Alternately, perhaps the author sets aside a regular time, but is not consistent about actually using it. If you put aside one hour per day for writing, you can pretty easily write 1-2 pages. (Actually, I’d like to phrase that more confidently. If you can sit down for an hour and do nothing but write, you WILL write at least 1-2 pages. If you can do 1-2 pages a day, you will have a manuscript drafted within 6 months). If you’re writing at your computer, I’d recommend turning off the Internet because I find it tends to reduce productivity.

3. The author gives up on the manuscript and starts another. Moving on could be a good idea if you’re more likely to finish the next one, but are you?  What will be different about this next one?  (I know too many authors that switch from one to the next to the next without actually finishing any).

I feel that one of the most common reasons an author will give up on a manuscript is if the main character doesn’t seem to be working. If that’s the issue, you could probably salvage a substantial portion of the story by working in a second point-of-view character (either a new character or an interesting, preexisting one). After you’ve finished the first draft, you can opt to remove the original main character altogether or do some rewriting so that the two perspectives mesh together more coherently. (A caveat: I would not recommend lightly deciding to do 3+ points of view. If you already have two POVs and want to add a third, when you come to the end of the first draft, I’d recommend carefully considering whether one can be removed and/or merged into another).

3.1: When is the best time to give up on a manuscript?  If you’re just in the brainstorming phase, I don’t think it costs very much to shelve a premise and try something else.  The more time you’ve put into it, the more I would encourage you to try to salvage it rather than toss it out altogether.  For example, one possibility is to consider a new main character (as above).  You could also consider a different genre.  For example, you could probably switch from superhero action to detective/mystery or vice versa–the story will feel radically different even though most of the plot events could remain.

PERFECTIONISM

4. The writer constantly rewrites chapters before the first draft is complete. Generally, I’d save major rewriting until you’ve finished the first draft (unless, perhaps, you want to overhaul the plot and it would be really confusing to push forward with what you have). Rewriting before the first draft is complete strikes me as a mostly-hopeless venture because you probably won’t have a very good idea of where the story is going before you get there. (Even if you outline—there’s no way to predict which ways you will adapt and change your outline over the course of writing the book until you actually do).

5. The author sends it out for beta-reviews too early and gets discouraged. Unless you’re desperately stuck, I wouldn’t get reviewers involved before the first draft is complete. Reviews are usually written with the mindset of “How can this be perfected?” and a story early in the development process might have hundreds of issues that could be perfected.  Getting a review that points out these issues early in the development process could shake the author by convincing him/her that the story doesn’t have much promise.  Please don’t worry about that—when you’re ready to rewrite, you can execute darn near anything better.  I’ve seen too many really strong stories start out as sort of crappy drafts to believe that a draft’s crappiness is something to get discouraged about.

Until the first draft is complete, I think “How can this be completed?” is a much more pressing question. Don’t worry about perfection until you have a draft completed. (For one thing, I feel it is nigh-impossible to perfect a piece that hasn’t been drafted. Finishing the draft gives you a scaffolding to build on or ingredients to cook with).

DIFFICULTIES WITH PLOTTING

6. The author loses track of where the story is going and allows that to discourage him/her. Don’t worry about it, just keep writing. It’s okay if your first draft has rough and/or nonsensical transitions, plot elements that are introduced but totally neglected, etc. It’s much easier to deal with those when you have the full draft in front of you. (Then you can examine which plot threads didn’t quite pan out and can be removed, which plot threads should be developed more fully, how to create smooth transitions between your scenes, whether to reorder the scenes, etc).

7. The author writes out of sequence and gets horribly discouraged when the story fragments turn into an incoherent wreck. I’d recommend writing chapter one and then chapter two and then chapter three and only skipping around as a last resort. If your manuscript is giving you anxiety, I think it’ll help a lot to focus on what’s coming next chapter rather than worrying about what could happen 10 or 20 chapters down the line.

8. There are too few goals, obstacles, character growth and/or consequences to propel the story past writer’s block.  For more details here, please see this article on writer’s block and this one.

Some other twists you can throw in:

• The character’s goals change.  A character might “fail” at a goal because he decides that it is no longer worth pursuing.  (More commonly, failures are caused by external opposition).
• The character is initially unsuccessful but keeps trying.  (For example, the Captain America movie would have been pretty boring if Rodgers had given up after the Army told him no the first five times).
• A problem or obstacle could be self-inflicted.   For example, in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, there are external villains (the 7 Evil Exes) but the biggest obstacles to Scott’s relationship with Ramona come from Scott himself, like his irresponsibility and immaturity.  (He, ahem, cheats on her with a high-schooler, which is not the best way to win a 24th birthday).

For another style of plotting, please see Organizing Your Story with Cause and Effect.

If you’re a writer that has trouble completing first drafts, I’d recommend checking it out.  So far, I’ve written at least 275 words every time I sat down for 15 minutes.  (If you’re interested, you can read 30 minutes’ worth here).  At that rate, I’d have a first draft of a novel manuscript within roughly 70 hours or a comic book script within 5.

As always, I recommend just getting the first draft down and saving any concerns about smoothness, style, conciseness, coherence or anything else for the rewriting process.  Having a draft complete will make it vastly easier to rewrite because you’ll have a much better idea when you’re going.

For more advice on beating writer’s block, please see this article and this one.

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1.  Don’t ever tell yourself “that isn’t good enough.” You’re only writing a draft.  It doesn’t need to be perfect, or even readable– it’s just a draft!  Forget “that isn’t good enough.”  Let “save it for rewrite” be your mantra.

2.  Don’t get hung up on research.  In fact, I’d recommend against doing any research during the first draft of most fiction.  (If you’re writing historical fiction for publication, that’s definitely an exception).

3.  Remove any distractions from your writing space.  If you find that the computer itself is a distraction, try writing by hand.

4.  Set aside a time for writing. For example, set a timer for an hour every day and use that time only for writing.  The boredom of being able to do nothing else will make you productive.  Or severely deranged.  However, my experiences suggest that productivity is the more likely outcome.

5.  Some writers respond well to daily page quotas. For example, ”I’m going to write at least two pages every day” or whatever.   To complete NaNoWriMo, you need to write 1700 words (~6 pages) a day.  Year-round, I’d recommend that aspiring authors write at least a page a day.  That’ll give you a draft of a comic book script in a month or a novel manuscript in a year.

6.  I wouldn’t recommend having people review your work. You’re writing a draft!  The more you think of this as a finalized product that needs to be fit for public consumption, the harder it will be to finish your pages.

7.  However, you may find it useful to ask for plot suggestions. How can I get from event A to event B?  What are some other ways I might introduce characters A and B?  What are some plausible explanations for Dr. Nefario’s burning hatred of jellybeans?

1. Don’t stop to rewrite chapters until you’ve finished a rough draft of every chapter. Your first draft won’t be great—it definitely won’t be publishable—and that’s okay. At the time you’re first writing a particular chapter, it’s virtually impossible to make it publishably good because you won’t know the endpoint you’re building towards until you’ve gotten there. While an outline can help solve this problem by providing a map, outlines generally change quite a bit as the author actually writes the chapters—characters develop in unforeseen directions, plots are added or removed, characters may be added or removed, etc. It’s much easier to go back and make chapter 5 excellent after you’ve finished the first draft of the entire manuscript.

2. The most important thing is to keep writing. It’s okay if it’s not coherent or stylish—you can always fix that by rewriting later. Don’t worry about whether it’s good or publishable. Before you’ve finished the first draft, it almost assuredly won’t be.

3. If you’re really, really stuck, you can try skipping chapters as a last resort.  If you’re drawing a blank on chapter 10, maybe it’d be easier to write chapter 15 because you have a clearer idea of what’s happening then. It may be easier to fill in chapters 10-14 later. However, generally I’d recommend writing in sequence because it helps the author stay focused.

4. If you have beta-reviewers, I’d focus on “how can I adapt my writing moving forward?” rather than “how can I rewrite this chapter?” For example, if you’re getting stuck trying to get the story from point A to B, beta-reviewers can help suggest transition scenes or plot developments.  For example, if you’re not ready to bring the superhero face-to-face with the villain yet, you could at least prepare readers for the eventual confrontation by having the hero come across one of the villain’s crime scenes.

5. Put all of your other writing projects on hold—focus on the task at hand as much as possible.  Your pay relies on how many manuscripts you finish, not on how many you start.  Not every manuscript and comic book script will actually get published, of course, but only finished stories are even in the running.

6. Write more than you need. You can tighten up your manuscript later. Do not tell yourself “this is filler” as you’re writing. It’s very difficult to know that before the manuscript is finished. Maybe that filler will become useful as the story takes shape—it may hint at a character trait or relationship or plot development that you don’t know is coming yet. Or maybe it’s filler in this chapter, but would be really useful at some other point in the book. The more you write, the more material you have to work with as you edit and mold your manuscript into something fit for publication.

Did you like this article? If so, please check out How to Beat Writer’s Block, Part 1.

1.  Switch problems. Writer’s block often sets after a hero has resolved a problem and it’s not clear where the story is headed.  Are there any problems left?  Could you introduce a new problem?

2.  Add a complication. Last chapter, it may have looked like the hero’s solution worked perfectly.  Well, that was last chapter.  What went wrong? For example, perhaps the hero inadvertently made a new enemy or the villain is quickly working to undo the hero’s action.

3. Switch solutions. Have your hero try to look at his problems in a new way.  Maybe he has to use ingenuity instead of brute force, or diplomacy instead of coercion, or careful planning rather than impulsiveness.  (Or vice versa).  For example, Heroes took away the characters’ powers from from time to time.

4.  Switch scenes. “Meanwhile, thousands of miles away…”  Moving the story very far will probably feel disjointed at first, but you can add a smoother transition after you determine where the story is going.

5.  Look at an important character in a new way. Perhaps there’s some aspect to your hero that could be developed more.  (Motivations? Personality? Key traits/flaws?  Where the character’s key traits/flaws came from? Background?)

6.  Give up on perfectionism. If you’re worried about being perfect, it will be very hard for you to start writing.  Don’t set ridiculously high standards for yourself on the first draft.  Think of the first draft as a scaffolding that you can build on rather than anything approaching the standards of the final product. (No one writes rough drafts that are good enough to publish).  It is much easier to write a few pages a day–even if they aren’t any good–and later rewrite them into something publishable.   One highly effective technique is to set aside 30-60 minutes each day to write a page or two.  You can use a free writing website like Write or Die to time you and give helpful reminders if you temporarily stop writing.  (If you averaged 400 words a day, you’d have a first draft of a novel manuscript ready within six months).

7.  Remove anything that distracts you from writing.  For example, if you’re typing away at your computer but find that you’re getting distracted, just turn off the Internet (or use a program like Write or Die that helps keep your focus).  If you’re spending too much time looking through notes or research, put them aside while you’re writing the first draft.

8.  If you’re truly desperate, consider throwing in a new antagonist or obstacle. This may reduce plot coherence, but the most important thing is to keep writing.  You can smooth out the connections later.

9.  If the plot has totally stalled, consider switching your angle. Sometimes, writers pick an angle because it’s conventional.  “I want to write about a magical university, so my story will be about a young wizard who studies there and eventually saves the world from great evil.”  Well, okay, but Harry Potter’s approach isn’t the only possibility.  What if you told a story about the teachers?  Or campus security? Or the admissions office?  Or the Ministry of Magic?  Or the bad guys?  Or the broom-flying instructors?  Or the headmaster?  Your story almost certainly has many such possibilities.  At the very least, any of these perspectives could add another chapter or character to help you develop your main character in a different direction.

Did you find this article helpful? If so, please check out How to Beat Writer’s Block, Part 2. Thanks!

Here are a few suggestions to avoid perfectionist impulses during the first draft…

1) Don’t edit.

2) If you get stuck on what happens in one part of the story, summarize it in a few sentences and move on. You can fill it in later.

3) Commit yourself to writing for at least 30 or 45 minutes. After ten minutes of accomplishing little, you will hopefully start to feel frustrated and lower your expectations. “Maybe this line is good enough.”