Ok adding to this though that even though it is extremely relatable, this is a KNOWN thing with professional writing. 10k is often referred to as "having a pot boiling" or "having a stew" - it's the point where you often see an idea coming together and it's exciting! But THEN... 30k-50k is the point where that fun has to start coming together. In theatre, it's usually week 3 of a 5 week rehearsal period where you have to stop talking about the play and really get it all up on its feet and cohesive. In art, it's committing to what are going to be the final visible layers of colour and texture, in sculpture the moment where you're truly at the point of no return with carving out the shape.
It usually feels really bad. Because this is the point it becomes real craft. It's so, so difficult to really be able to identify if it's truly not going to be anything or you're just in the hardest part of the process, and really the only way to know is to... write through it. Write it badly. Or, if you really can't, put it in a drawer and come back to it after a few months of breathing space. Remember, you can fix so much in the edit, but you can't fix nothing!
(I say, fully looking at my latest draft of my book and considering throwing it in the bin. But my editor said exactly this to me, so I'm passing it along.)
this is 100% true. I've written 6 complete novels at this point and every single time around the 40k mark I feel lost in the woods. Nothing seems to be working. I feel awful; I can't sleep. I keep going even though I'm convinced I'm going to fail. And then... It's like leaving a tunnel and getting back out in the sunshine. Stuff starts coalescing. Things that weren't working have obvious fixes. I "can write" again, except I was writing the whole time. It just felt hopeless in the moment. It's not. You just gotta get out of the woods.
There are few delights in the world like having a friend start to read Jane Eyre for the first time and then as they are commenting on it you slowly realize that they don't know. They don't know Rochester's deal.
This is like the literary equivalent of meeting someone who doesn't know Darth Vader is Luke's father.
So they go "I don't understand why anyone would have a problem with this relationship! Yeah he's older and there is a class/power difference but he clearly respects her as a person and it's so refreshing!" and you just cackle, cackle, cackle behind your screen until the inevitable day you get this message.
Everyone congratulate my friend @anonymoustypewriter, they just found out one of literature's biggest 100+ year old shock twists authentically without anyone spoiling it for them.
Nature is incredible, you can really see just at a quick glance how these evolved to speak together in rhyming riddles while performing a spooky dance, laughing at you because they're The Wee Creatures Three and you will Never Get Their Key.
The polar opposite of corporate accounts trying to come across as hip and super friendly are the ones for libraries, aquariums, parks systems and the like, that are basically just trying to get people excited about learning and the wonder of history/science by posting things like this:
for the times when you really truly want to do something, but find resistance or that starting feels impossible
most helpful action to get into a task is:
look at it
options include: review what you've already done
open the tab on screen
blur your eyes at first if that helps
fullscreen the image
browse or skim relevant texts
let your gaze move around how it will
JUST...LOOK!!!
Your brain has resistance towards starting the particular project in the way that you've previously conceived of it. Instead of fighting that resistance, try to change your approach to starting your work. Ie, start with colored pencils on a piece you were doing in gouache, include a new stitch in a crochet piece,
Step one: identify the process
Step two: identify places where something new can be included
Step three: brainstorm new options to fill these spots
Step four: select one or more options and try your piece from this new angle
encourage yourself by asking questions
start with: "What am I actually trying to do right now?"
then try: "What would this look like if it were more fun?" "How would I do it if anything was possible?"
divide into discrete tasks
make the closest or shiniest one literally as small & specific as freaking possible
image text: I BELIEVE IN YOU
screenshot text: The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
W.B. Yeats (via billowy)
