This Is Why You're Struggling to Write Your Book

Writing a book isn't easy and I hate every television show or movie that makes it seem like it is.

The reality of writing is seemingly endless days spent sitting in a chair staring at a screen and willing your fingers to make the words appear on the page the same way they look in your head. 

Writing a novel is challenging, and there may be several reasons why you are struggling to finish your novel, but luckily for you for every problem, there is a solution. 

You're Stuck In Your Own Head

I'll never finish. I'll never be a bestseller. No one is going to read it. 

*Sprays you with water* 

Bad writer. Stop that. 

The biggest reason we see writers struggling to finish their novels is because they've gotten in their own heads that what they write isn't going to be good, or it's not going to be good enough for anyone to read it. 

Well the more you think this about your work - the more you're going to make it true. 

A painter doesn't approach the canvas thinking that no one is going to understand what they paint - that's not why they paint it. 

They paint because they have a vision of something inside of them and they are doing their best to manifest that vision into a physically tangible thing. Not everyone is going to understand it, and not everyone is going to like it, but the painter moves on to the next piece of art and the cycle continues. 

You can't worry about what people are going to think of your book while you are writing it or even after. 

As long as you did your best to make it the best that you can then it's going to be amazing. 

You're Writing To Market 

Just because everyone currently loves books about vampires and dragons at the moment does not mean you need to sit there and force yourself to write a book about dragons and vampires just because you think you need to in order to sell books. 

You might think dragons are boring and writing about them is boring you. 

Make sure that the book you are writing is something you want to write and not something you are writing just because you think it's something you need to write. 

You Don't Know What Your Story Is About 

Sure when you sat down to write you had a good general idea of things you wanted to happen in your story and so you began writing, but you didn't make a plan for where you were going with it. 

Or you knew where you wanted to start and you know how you want it to end, but it's those tricky middle bits that you aren't quite sure of. 

Go back to the drawing boards, and make an outline. CUE GASPS OF HORROR. 

I'm sorry to tell you this, but if you already tried pantsing your story only to get stuck halfway through without any sense of direction, you're going to need to make some sort of outline to get you out of there. 

This doesn't have to be complicated. Take a single piece of paper, write where your story begins, draw an arrow, and write a sentence about what happens next. Draw another arrow, and continue until you reach the end. 

Or go to the end and work backward. 

Spend some time figuring out your story before you go back to writing it and you'll find the process much easier. 

You're Editing As You Go 

As soon as you write a chapter, imagine it under lock and key until you finish the first draft of the book. 

Too often you'll start to change something here or there, but then it changes something in the beginning and you have to go add it in and the next thing you know you've spent 5 years writing, but you've never gotten any further than the first ten chapters. 

If you know there is something you have to go back and change, keep a notebook by your desk, write it down, and fix it later. 

There is going to be plenty of time to edit, and by the time you get to the end you may have to change that thing you were going to change into something else anyway so might as well do it all at once after you have the big picture of your entire novel. 

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There may be many reasons you are struggling to write your book, but for every struggle you may have, there is a solution out there. 

Best of luck! 

With love, 

B. xo xo

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This story was originally posted on Medium.

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