Poking around the Internet, I learned of an English novelist, Ruth Saberton, who was despairing of getting her book published.  But then her mother-in-law mentioned that the hosts of a no-longer airing chat show, a program that had featured a book club, maintained a country retreat nearby.

Saberton traveled there and left her full manuscript on Richard and Judy’s step with a note asking them to read it.

You know how you avoid something so long that it begins to feel overwhelming? Even when you sense that just starting is what you need to do?

I did it. I resumed working on my second novel after a hiatus of too many weeks. If you find yourself procrastinating the same way, here are a few thoughts that might be of use to you:

1. Don’t get stuck on some minor point. When I run out of ideas (or steam) at a particular spot, I write “MORE” and leave it for later.  Those “MOREs” are good to go back to when you have only a short time to write.
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I received a question from a reader, an international grad student who is having a hard time writing in English.  My response equally applies to anyone who tightens up at the thought of having to write well.

I only read mysteries occasionally, but nearly everyone I know loves them.  When I was researching the creative writing process — how writers enter flow and are their most productive and, typically, most happy — I interviewed Jonathan Kellerman. 

A friend of mine told her then-husband that she was finally going to start her novel.  He folded his arms, scowled and asked with palpable cynicism and disgust, “Do you have an outline?”

“Geeze, no,” she replied, “but Stephen King says in his book that outlines are completely unnecessary–just start writing.” According to my friend, that temporarily took the wind out of her ex’s know-it-all sails.

What, then, is the truth about outlines?  Do they serve a purpose or are they only dreary reminders of long-ago school days when we had to outline material we didn’t care about?

If you were to do an efficiency analysis of my movements during a typical at-home writing day, you’d end up with a surprising criss-crossing maze.  Not enough walking to use very many calories, but enough to show my typical style is not to sit and write steadily. 

The other evening, a group of long-time friends and I got together over a delicious chili casserole (mild) and caught up with one another.

We often share something creative with the group, as one of us is a poet, another a painter, another a photographer, two are working on a short video project, and so on.  This time Patti had copied some uncaptioned cartoons from the last page of The New Yorker (available online). The idea was for each of us to write our own funny captions.  It was hard!  And, in fact, I was the only one who totally froze and left mine all blank.

Like creation myths, the fables that get passed around among creative writers come in all degrees of, well, wrongness.  That’s my opinion, of course, but an opinion backed by interviews with dozens of famous novelists and poets and also by psychological science.

Starting something new is exciting.  Scary, too.  The anxiety comes from the challenge:  Am I up to it?  One of my favorite methods for getting unstuck in any kind of writing project is to pretend I’m “only” writing a letter.

Welcome to Writer’s Mind with Susan K. Perry. Although this blog is no longer being updated, archived posts remain available to shed light on the writing experience, and to share wisdom  from successful writers. Whether you’re an amateur or professional writer — or just someone who appreciates good writing as an avid reader — Writer’s Mind pulls back the curtain on the author’s writing process, starting with Susan’s own extensive experiences as an author.