Tuesday Tip – A Writer’s Guide to Seemingly Insurmountable Obstacles

It’s weird how life can provide metaphors for our writing.

Last weekend, I was driving to pick up my son and came across this very large obstacle across the road. It seemed insurmountable. I couldn’t drive through it, I couldn’t jump over it – at least not in my car.

Ever felt like that about your writing? I have. I tend to get to this point at the end of a manuscript when I’m not sure how to end it – when all the ideas I come up with seem cliched or inappropriate – when it seems like I’ll never get past this road/manuscript block.

So as a writer, how do you overcome something like this?

For me, the way the emergency services guys got this tree off the road was a perfect example of how to deal with a difficult manuscript problem – you have to cut it down into manageable pieces.

And then handle those pieces one at a time.

I find that removing the ‘problem scene’ and treating it as an entity in its own right definitely helps. Look at that scene as a story.

Does it have a beginning and and end?
Does it have conflict?
Does it reveal character?
Does it have a resolution?
Is the resolution satisfying to the reader?

It’s easy to envy others who seem to navigate the writing journey with apparent ease, who speed along straight to their destination – but think of all the visual wonders and experiences that they miss in their haste:)