Lost in Words, What Would You Do? by Gerri Brousseau

In the spring I started to write a contemporary romance, something new for me since I generally write historical romance. It was moving along at a good clip and my beta reader loved it. She said the story was good and the writing was tight. I also felt this was my best writing to date.

Then I got invited to participate in writing for a special project. I put my contemporary on the back burner and dove in, head first, to writing for the special project. The words for the new work flowed and that project came into being in no time flat. I was very pleased with the way it turned out, but what happened next was perplexing. I picked up on the contemporary again. I read it from the beginning to get the flow of the story back, but I got nothing. I sat before the computer, with my fingers upon the keyboard staring at a blank page with the cursor blinking and . . . still nothing. Someone once told me to just put words on the page because you can always go back and edit, but you can’t edit a blank page. Still the words that were coming out were, well, crap that even edits couldn’t save.

So now what? Now what happens? How can I get my head back into the story? Take a walk someone said. I did that. It was a lovely, crisp autumn day and I enjoyed the foliage very much, but still had no words. Do something else that you enjoy, said another. So, I made stew, chili, baked bread, apple pie, apple cake, and pumpkin muffins, but still no words flowed. Another suggested doing writing sprint, but that didn’t help either. How can I wrap my brain around that story once again? I’ve apologized to my main characters, but apparently they’re still upset with me for leaving them in the lurch and they refuse to cooperate. 

Has this ever happened to any of you? What did you do to get back on track with your initial story? It’s not really “writer’s block” because I am writing other things. It’s just this particular story. Maybe that’s my answer. Maybe I will just let them be for now and work on another project. What would you do?

Filed under: romance