Feeling stuck is a common occurrence that can have you feeling overwhelmed, depressed, anxious and unable to move forward. Everyone feels this way from time to time, but there are ways to feel emotionally and mentally unstuck and get back on the path of growth and progress in your life.
1. Know Your Genre: Often, writers get stuck because they don’t have a clear understanding of their story’s main genre. Having a sense of this can help you make decisions when you’re writing, such as what to keep and what to cut.
In the case of a novel, for example, knowing your story’s genre can help you determine if your plot is overly complicated or whether there are too many subplots. It can also tell you if certain scenes and characters are more or less important than others.
2. Know Your Characters: Sometimes, it’s hard to figure out what your protagonist is really like and how you want them to act. This is a great reason to do character sketches, which can provide you with a clear picture of who your protagonist is and how they think.
3. Find Your Theme: It’s important to understand the main theme of your story when you’re writing. This can give you a sense of what is the most important part of your story, and what direction you need to take with it.
4. Look at the Calendar: When you’re feeling stuck, it can help to put your story in a calendar context and see where the story is set. This can give you a lot of inspiration and ideas about how to structure your story.
5. Find Your Agency: When you’re feeling stuck, it’s crucial to remember that you are the person in charge of your decisions and that you can choose to do something different about what is happening in your life. This is a powerful empowering force and can be the difference between being stuck and being unstuck.
6. Change Your Self-Talk: If you’re feeling stuck, it’s important to examine how your negative self-talk is getting in the way of your ability to achieve your goals and dreams. This can help you to get more clarity on what’s really holding you back and to develop a healthier, more positive attitude.
7. Start With What’s Available: When you’re struggling to decide which direction to take with your story, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the two options are insurmountable or that you’ll never get out of a hole you’ve created for yourself. This is why it’s so crucial to start with what’s available and move from there.
8. Take Small Steps: It’s easy to get stuck in a rut and forget that there are always little steps you can take to move forward with your goals. Taking small steps, such as deciding to start writing on a Monday instead of a Tuesday or going out to get coffee with your girlfriend instead of spending all your free time in front of the computer, can have an incredible impact on your mindset and your motivation to reach your goal.