Tactics for when you’re stuck on rewrites

Editing, Goal setting, Writing
I've spent a long time in rewrites--first working on Moonshadow's Guardian, then the second draft of my 2011 Nanovel--and the last two weeks have been the most unpleasant of all. Each day I wrote a page, maybe less, of the actual novel and spent hours entranced in other writing. Avoiding the novel itself. Late last week I hunkered down, figured out the issue causing my avoidance and worked through it. Now I'm back to work on my novel, confident I won't stall again. When you've been working on the same project for a long time it can be difficult to continue. You start to lose your enthusiasm and writing becomes like walking on hot coals. Every scene seems an insurmountable challenge. The book itself becomes a monster you avoid like…
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Creating an Outline

Inspirational, Nanowrimo, Writing
Even if you only have the most basic story, it's important to create an outline. Being able to see your story visually will give you a better idea of where you need to add details, events and subplots, and if you leave enough space you can write in new things as they happen. Having the outline handy while writing can also remind you what you're writing next after a particularly exhausting scene or prolonged break. As November is almost upon us, it's time to create your outline. For the purpose of this exercise, I'm going to assume that you know something about your story's beginning, middle and end, but not much about what happens between those three points. If you're starting completely from scratch, start here. If you're still here,…
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