Stalled by Susan Barclay

Waaay back in 2004 I started work on my first novel. I'm a pantser so I didn't work with an outline, but I did have a good idea of how the story would begin and how it would end.

For a while, I wrote consistently and the words pretty much flowed from my head and onto the page. I was part of a monthly writing group that offered amazing feedback, encouragement, and support.

Then I got stuck. Hit a roadblock in the plot and didn't know where to go, what to write next. Somewhere along the way I also lost much of my work due to a computer snafu. Here's a fact I can endorse from experience: always, always back up your back-up.

A member of our writing group passed away after a years'-long battle with breast cancer. I hadn't realized how much of the glue she must have been because our group fell apart and has never regained its momentum. 

I started a writing course with author J.A. McLachlan. Her feedback on my work was great but her gentle suggestions made it clear that I needed to pretty much start over.

Then Covid hit. My mom fell and moved in with us. My daughter boomeranged back home as well. And now my son has returned. While I'm happy to have a full house and to care for the people God's placed in my life, it's also meant setting my project aside for this season. We talked more about this in my August post.

So, in terms of strategies I'd normally suggest to someone who's stuck - take a break and work on writing something else, seek feedback from others and see if it generates new ideas or directions, ask yourself 'what if this?/what if that?' - none of those help me right now. I also find it difficult to get up any earlier in the morning or stay awake any later at night. The one thing I can do is read other people's books. As I said in the August post, "Reading is an important activity for writers as we learn from both good and bad writing and get ideas for subjects we might want to explore further through our own work." All is not lost.

As I was scrolling through Facebook this morning, I found some encouragement on Jennifer Rothschild's page. She said:

Sometimes we look at Psalm 37:4 as a blank check. We think that if we delight in God, He will give us what we want. But the emphasis of the verse is on delighting. When we delight in God, He places in us the desires He wants us to have. “It is God who works in you,” Paul reminds us, “to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). When our delight is in God, we can trust that our desires will be what He wants for us. That way we never settle for less!

Today instead of worrying about my set-aside project, wondering if it will ever get finished, I choose to focus on delighting on God. I want nothing less than His best for me, and that may mean forgetting the novel and all the years I poured into it. I know the time wasn't wasted as I improved my ability and skill. 

God has good plans for me (Jeremiah 29:11) and for my writing. When the time is right, He will show me the next step(s). My trust and my hope are in Him and nothing else. Nothing is better than Him!

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For more about Susan Barclay and her writing, please visit www.susan-barclay.blogspot.com

 

 

Writing in the Cracks by Susan Barclay

Writing in the Cracks

I write in isolation
In the cracks of time
Between work
And family
And home

I write in silence
Please do not disturb
Go away
And leave me
Alone

Words are like butterflies
Fluttering here and there

Or they're like morning mist
Or sand through your fingers 

Not easy to catch

And now we are isolated
The time-cracks wider
And still there is work
And family 
And home 

I hear my children's voices
They are loud
My man sits too close
The dog scratches
At the door

There is no distance
No quiet

I love them
But still they stay

Now I must grow my words
By force

Or they will not grow at all

 c. Susan Barclay, 2020
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You can find out more about Susan Barclay's writing at www.susan-barclay.blogspot.com

I'd Rather Be Sleeping by Susan Barclay

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a pantser. That is to say, I write by the seat of my pants – whatever comes to mind, I write, and let the words flow out. Apart from the occasional “block,” writing comes fairly naturally to me as one of the gifts with which God has blessed me. This may not be what you want to hear, but it’s true. 

If someone asks, as they recently did, how I know how to deposit the right detail at the right time – for pacing, say – I find myself at a loss to explain, as I have no real thought-out process. I write, read my work aloud, revise, repeat.

I can see the value in writing in a journal or notebook. I just never have one on hand, nor am I the type of person to wake up in the middle of the night and write down an idea. I’ll have an idea all right; I’ll even wake up and mull it over. But that’s where the action ends for me. I’m not going to leap out of bed or even roll over and grab a pen and paper off my nightstand to write it down. I can’t say it’s laziness as much as tiredness. I’d rather go back to sleep.

Does this mean I’m less observant or alert? Maybe. But I guess I’m okay with that. I’m still writing and, for the most part, writing well. A greater challenge for me is the submitting to publishers and agents part. Let’s chat about that!

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Please visit Susan at www.susan-barclay.blogspot.ca

Writer's Hiatus by Susan Barclay

October 2014-December 2015 were pretty dry writing months for me. It wasn’t so much that the brain juices weren’t flowing, but that my life became busier. My mom was living with us, and my daughter’s friend, Karen, also lived with us during the summer, leaving me with little time to myself. I’m one of those writers who need to work in complete silence. My mom and Karen don’t know what silence is.

So… time goes by. Karen moves into an apartment with friends in September 2015; my mom moves back home in January 2016. I feel like a newbie writer again, or as my kids might say, a noob. How and where do I begin?

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. -St. Francis of Assisi

These words mean a lot to me. “Start by doing what’s necessary.” What’s necessary is for me to begin writing – something, anything. I begin by creating a new blog and posting regularly. That seems small and fairly non-threatening. I share the news with my old blog readers and my Facebook friends. That’s as much exposure as I want during this time of “sprouting new leaves again.”

Next, I "do what's possible." I pick up my novel, which if not on the computer would be gathering dust on a shelf. I go back to the beginning and start editing as a way to remind myself of the story and to do the nurturing that begins after a gestation period. No matter how many times I return to page one, I always find ways to make the work better. My brain cylinders have been firing even if my fingers have been resting.

Suddenly I am "doing the impossible." I’m writing new material – new sentences, paragraphs, chapters. I never stopped attending my writers’ groups, but now I’m participating more fully and feeling more engaged. There’s work to be done, additional changes to make, a challenge to be embraced. It’s exhilarating. Would I have been open to all of this had my earlier work not come to a halt?

I’m not sure. And so I am grateful for the respite and repose. It’s not as if nothing was happening with my writing during this period; it was all just happening behind the scenes, and I was unaware of it.

Recently I came across two very affirming thoughts I’d like to leave you with: 

The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are. -J. Pierpont Morgan

You don’t want to break forever. Sometimes, as in my case, you don’t have a choice as to the length of time you take off. Other times, you do. When you do, take the proverbial bull by the horns. Decide to move forward, then act.

Remember this also:

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity. -Louis Pasteur

It takes tenacity to be a writer. Don’t let a little thing like a hiatus deter or discourage you. Use the time to let thoughts and ideas percolate. Then return and take the world by storm.