Over the Hump
October 8, 2021

It had been building for weeks--the feeling my writing was bland, my stories
uninteresting; while the stories of other writers all sparkled with creativity
and complexity. I wanted to be able to do what all my favorite authors seemed to
be able to do effortlessly, but had no idea how to go about it. I was plateaued.

This sort of thing happens often when you're a writer; your current skill level
is less than what you wish it were. And that causes frustration and the fear
that perhaps this is as good as you'll ever get. It's not a fun place to be.

First the good news: just about every writer has felt this feeling at one time
or another. Improvement in writing comes in fits and spurts with long stretches
of stability between. You'd think the process would be linear, that you'd
improve day-to-day. But that isn't how it really works. As a writer, you have to
learn to live with feeling frustrated with yourself from time to time. 

Now for the better news: Feeling stuck or plateaued likely means you're about to
have one of those sudden improvements in your writing skills. But you don't just
have to sit and wait for it to happen. One thing you can do to help yourself is
to clarify where you want to improve. Plot? Characters? Dialog? Can you put your
finger on what you're unhappy about?

In my case, I realized I could write a straight A to B to C plot, but all the
stories I admired had "out-of-order" or non-linear ones. For example, Katherine
Mansfield's "A Dill Pickle" consists of two people sitting at a table, talking.
Yet she reveals a long, rich backstory as the piece unfolds. I wanted to be able
to do something like that, too, but hadn't been able to see how to make it
happen.

But once I got my finger on what I wanted, it became easier for me to figure out
what I needed to do. I started looking at writing books for suggestions on
creating plots and narrative, and stumbled across my answer in E.M. Forster's
"Aspects of the Novel." (A book worth reading even if you're not a novelist.)
Forster describes the difference between a story ("And then what happened?") and
a plot ("The King died and then the Queen died of grief.") One is chronological,
the other cause-and-effect.

Forster then mentions that the time sequence of the story can be suspended as
long as the plot isn't. That's when something clicked. I realized I could write
out the chronological order of all the events in my story--including the
backstory--then move them around and reveal them through scene, flashbacks,
conversation, character thoughts or details--as long as I didn't break
cause-and-effect. Suddenly, I saw a away out of being plateaued.

As an experiment, I went back through Mansfield's "A Dill Pickle" and this time
saw much more clearly how she worked her magic. I haven't yet tried out my idea
in my own writing, but only because I'm in the middle of editing several short
stories and want to finish those first. As soon as I can, though, I plan to dive
right in and get to creating a complex plot.

 So if you're feeling stuck in your writing, take a deep breath and relax--it
happens to all writers. Then start looking into exactly why it is you feel
plateaued and you might find a way to lift yourself up over the hump.

(c) 2021 by Andrew Gudgel 
email: contact [at] andrewgudgel.com