Over the last year or so, I have encountered a ton of writing and publishing professionals, including editors, journalists, and authors, who are feeling, well, a bit stuck. And I felt stagnated myself despite having made several big changes in my life.
Things change all the time, and the future of publishing and authorship is full of uncertainty. It ebbs and flows with market changes, industry changes, and now AI. But really, that’s just one more thing, right? Navigating all of this is situation normal for creators.
Insert a huge, heavy sigh here. (Some of you just did it. I hear you.) A fundamental shift was taking place not only in the publishing industry but in my own career. And the more I talked to other authors, the more I realized I was not alone.
But two questions became quickly evident. The first was, “What the heck is going on?”
The next, more important one, was, “What do I do about it?”
What the heck is going on?
While arguably this is one of the best times in history to be a writer, things have changed drastically and are shifting so rapidly in publishing that it is hard to keep up even when you do this full time. Marketing and advertising have been impacted by AI, along with how many authors write using it as an aide. No matter what side you come down on in that argument, you are going to get pushback from someone. While all of this new stuff can be exciting, some days it just feels like one more thing to work on, and another browser tab open in your head.
At the same time, the fundamental job of an author has not changed. Rearrange the alphabet into words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and finally a coherent story. We then package that story with an attractive cover, appropriate formatting, and deliver it to a reader.
And repeat.
When you have been doing this for a while, you have likely developed a procedure for the entire publishing process—from draft to final edit, from formatting and cover design to final upload (or delivery to your agent or editor in a traditional setting).
The problem with a set process, even one that is working, is that as a creative you can grow bored with the day-to-day aspects of writing. When you’ve written enough books in the same genre or series, you start to think you might be repeating yourself. You start to wonder how many more stories you have in you. When you began as a writer, it probably felt like you had so many ideas you could never write them all down. Now you might wonder if you are getting to the end of the creativity well.
Whether or not that’s true doesn’t matter when you “feel” stagnant. Your friends, family, peers, and partner can tell you how amazing you are, and that can help, but you need to find the joy in your muse, your creativity, and your career to get out of your funk.
And for me, as Russel Nohelty said in a brilliant Substack post, “Everything feels like it is getting harder … More hours. Less money. And somehow, in this chaos, we are expected to build a career, grow a brand, and monetize our passion like it’s not all a full-blown cosmic joke.”
So, what do we do? All I can tell you are the things that I (and writers I know) have tried, and what impact they had.
Revisiting your process
Changing things up might seem like the answer, but there are so many choices. Do you try a new writing software? (I did, several.) Maybe you try a new computer, a different office, or going to a coffee shop every day. Even a new desk or a new desk chair sometimes helps.
“I got a new computer, a switch from PC to Mac,” Danielle Parker, author of the Faoladh series told me. “It just feels better and faster, and it reinvigorated my muse.” Maybe you can’t make a big change like that for whatever reason, but sometimes changing the background or creating a new user just for writing can make a difference.
If you’ve gotten into the habit of outlining your stories, try writing by the seat of your pants to see what happens. Let your muse take the reins for a change. Try a new genre, under a new pen name. Start a new series, even though the one you are in is still profitable.
The point is that you need to look at your process and at least try to shake things up a little. But some words of caution here:
- Change one thing at a time, and see if it works. Changing too much at once can truly break your process or result in overwhelm.
- Give changes time to work or not work. Trying something for an hour, one time, doesn’t really count (unless that chair hurts your hip flexors, you consider briefly having them removed, and then ditch the chair instead).
- Engage with your gut instincts. This isn’t about your thinking or physical environment or even what you are writing. It’s about how all of that feels to you. What you are doing needs to align with your heart and gut as well as your head.
- Move slowly in this process. And when you seem to have hit on a sweet spot, or at least a better one, stop. Stay there for a while. Don’t change for the sake of change.
- Don’t be afraid to take a step back. I’d tried all kinds of new writing software, but in the end I went back to something I have been using for years. Immediately I felt better, even though I still kept some of the changes I had made.
But what if you change any or all of that stuff, and you are still stuck? Well, it might be time to look inside.
Revisit your why
While a change in process did turn out to be good for me in many ways, the original problem remained. I felt stagnant inside my writing, almost stuck there as well. The answer was not a simple one, but it came after a few critical actions on my part:
- Remind yourself of your why. The answer is likely not money, because otherwise we would be day traders, doctors, or heroin dealers (we are, in some ways, heroine dealers). Reexamine and rekindle your motive.
- Check in with your goals. What do you want from writing? Again, if money is the answer, that might be the problem in today’s rapidly changing market. Where do you find your fulfillment in your craft?
- What, exactly, is keeping you from your goals? (What is the conflict in your career?) Is that conflict something you can navigate or remove? If so, get to work doing that.
Note that this follows the goal, motivation, and conflict scenario we often look at in fiction. We are, after all, writing the story of our careers, so many of the same principles apply. When I did this myself, I found that my why, or motive, was the same as it had been in the past. My goals were similar as well—money is part of that, sure, but not the primary goal.
But the conflict? Like conflict in a novel, this can be internal or external conflict, and in my case it was internal. A big part of the problem was me losing sight of those larger goals, and forgetting what my motive was when my bank balance got low.
The big picture
Here’s the truth. We get lost in the weeds sometimes, and for lack of a better expression, we can’t see the forest for the trees. We sometimes need to pause, take a step back, and look at the big picture.
Our bank balance today is not our balance forever. Being stuck on one story or series does not mean we can no longer write at all. Some words today is better than none, even if it’s not exactly the number you wanted. Needing a change of pace or a rest to refill our creativity is never a bad thing.
The most important takeaway? As soon as I reached out to other authors, I found that I was not alone. Feeling stagnated or stuck is more common than you think. Reaching out to your writer community may not fix the problem or even net the advice that will fix things for you. But at least you’ll have someone to talk to and share your struggles with who understands.
Because we don’t have to navigate this world alone. We’re in this together no matter what you’re going through.
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Troy Lambert is the author of over 30 novels and several works of nonfiction. He is also an editor, book coach, and educator. When not behind a keyboard rearranging the alphabet into stories, he can be found playing in the mountains of Idaho near his home.