What Are Your Writing Hang Ups? Tips for Authors

What causes you to get stuck in your writing process? Here are some of my foibles or quirks and the things I do to prevent or overcome them. Your writing style and process are personal. Try the tips that work for you. If something doesn’t work, then try something else. You need to figure out what is best for you and what makes you more productive.

I ALWAYS come in under my word count (sometimes by as much as 20K words). I type, “The End,” and I am nowhere near close to being done. I write cozy mysteries, so I’m usually aiming for the low 70,000-word range. I’m one of the few people that I know who actually gains words during the editing process. I do an outline for each book. I look at the word count of the other books in the series and the number of chapters to give myself an idea of how much I’ll need for the first draft. I use my first few rounds of self-edits to make sure there are enough clues and red herrings in the story.

I love the researching, planning, and writing parts of the process. The editing and revising parts seem more like work. I have to break the tasks up into smaller pieces. I get tired and bored, and distractions don’t help when you’re trying to concentrate on making updates. I listen to fun playlists of upbeat music to keep me going. I also reward myself with things I like to do if I hit my editing/revising goal. Sometimes, it’s 5-10 minutes on the internet. This helps me to stay focused, and I get a treat for doing my work.

My outline serves several purposes. One of my critique groups meets every month. We read 50 pages at a time from each author, and it’s easy to forget what happened in earlier chapter. The group has asked for a chapter summary of past reads, so I use my outline, and I don’t have to create anything new. I also use it to help me with the dreaded synopsis.

No matter how much I self-edit or read my manuscript, I don’t see some mistakes like overused words. I keep a list of my pet words and do a search and replace. Some of my key offenders are “just,” “that,” and “so.”

When I decided that I wanted to write mystery novels, I bought every writing book I could get my hands on. Then I found that I was doing a lot of reading about writing and not much writing. I cleaned off my shelf. I kept the books that were most helpful and donated the rest to the library. You just need to write and to hone your craft. Join a critique group, find a writing partner, or find a good editor. Writers need feedback along the way to improve their writing.