by Elaina Lyons

And then, out of the blue, it just hit me.

But not without some effort. I read back through my entire story, adding here, removing there. I altered dialogue and put scenes in different orders. And then, after a bunch of edits and fixes and self-critiques, I realized what I’d been missing. And luckily, everything finally came together.

I’ve realized that the thing of it is, both in writing and in life, you can’t expect these gigantic waves of inspiration to come easily. As they say, nothing worth doing comes without a bit of a struggle.

I think part of me (even though I knew better) was hoping the solution to my writer’s block would just appear out of thin air. Sometimes inspiration happens that way! But most of the time, you have to work a little bit harder for the answers to your problems. Writing is no exception.

So, if you’re struggling to figure out where your character is going, or how you want your plot to twist, or what ending will work best, don’t give up. Don’t throw away the whole novel because you’re struggling with one part.

Give yourself time. Read through what you have. Make corrections as you need to. Focus on other parts of the manuscript. And, eventually, you’ll probably hit on a few right notes.

Trust me. And trust the process.

You’ve got this.

Grab your copy of “The Love You Know” here.

If you’re an indie author and you’d like to guest post on this blog, email me!