What Do You Do When You’re Stuck?

I’ve been researching and writing about Maude Adams for about seven years now. That’s a long time to spend with someone in the intimate details of their life. Of course, there have been breaks and writer’s blocks along the way. But this year, I jumped back into this story headfirst, writing just about every weekend. And I’ve been making good progress.

Every now and then, though, my creativity still gets stuck. Jammed and contorted like a paper jam in a printer, and I have to try to figure out where the problem is before I can fix it. I have several go-to solutions for kickstarting my creativity.

• Getting out in nature
• Listening to music I’ve never heard
• Painting
• Diving into the research

Last week, when I revisited the research, I found a very interesting newspaper article about Maude that led me to write a completely new chapter, and it completely changed my original ideas about how some of the events in her life unfolded. This was extremely exciting. I felt like an archeologist finding some priceless piece of history.

Then I got stuck again.

Now I’ve discovered a new solution for overcoming creative blocks. More writing. I know, I know, that sounds counterproductive. How can you do more writing if your creativity is stuck? Well, the idea is to write anything other than your main project. I’ve started writing (and submitting) short pieces again. A creative nonfiction article, a poem, a short story. All of this got me out of the creative block from slogging through an increasingly long novel and back to the joys of finishing a project. Because I can knock these short pieces out in a few days or weeks and submit them, it gives me a sense of excitement and accomplishment that then fuels the big project.

So next time you feel stuck in your writing, you can try my original list of solutions, or you can try just writing anything else other than what you need to write.