When I'm Stuck

Typically when I write a book, I aim to get a chapter done every day. Now, there are plenty of times that it doesn’t happen or that I do more than one in a day (more often, it not happening is what’s going down rather than me writing more, but it does happen from time to time).

I also outline my books before I start writing them, which means I generally know where a chapter’s going to go before I start writing it. Problems crop up when the story goes off the rails of the outline or I realize that the word count isn’t on target.

(I always aim to write at least 100k words per book, and Griffin has been my shortest so far at 105k).

With Tempting Harrison, I realized that with the number of chapters I have planned out and the word count of each chapter being what it is, I was going to fall short of my 100k goal. Now the struggle is how do I beef up the story without using anything that feels like filler?

The past four days, I’d been stuck on a chapter I added in. I thought I knew where it was going, but once I had written out the things I had in mind, I was about a thousand words short of where I needed to be. I’d been going crazy wracking my brain trying to figure out what to do, when finally I brought it up with a fellow writer friend of mine, Cathleen. (If you’re looking for something to read while you wait for Harrison, go check out her debut novel, Heart of Steel).

She made a couple of suggestions that got me thinking in a whole different direction than I was and bam! Unsutck, just like that. This morning, I finished the chapter and moved onto the next and the book is back underway.

So, in short, being stuck sucks but having peeps to bounce ideas off of is the best way to get un-stuck in my opinion. Also, this book (Tempting Harrison) is honestly my favorite of the series, which has been such a happy surprise. I can’t wait for you to read it!