Over the weekend, I TikToked about Spring cleaning and taking a few items to Goodwill on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Last night, I watched an episode of Hoarders and it scared me. I immediately went and cleaned another small area in our creative room after watching a painful episode of someone who needed help but refused to accept it from friends and family. Everyone ended up in tears at some point. Sometimes it hard to let go or accept that you need help. And let’s be honest there’s times when we all need help.
What does this have to do with writing? We all have our own slush piles. We need to schedule times throughout the year to go through the clutter and we might be surprised by what we find. This doesn’t mean we bring our manuscripts to Goodwill but there are readers out there in all genres waiting to hear from us. Our world survives on revived ideas.
Our homework for this week is to go through our piles of manuscripts, ideas piles, and old submissions. We might have tossed them because we thought it wasn’t any good at the time. I know I’ve returned to old work and wondered who this person was that was able to put out that kind of work because it was actually pretty good. Take a look at where you were and why the story was never finished. You might see things different after some time has passed. The block you experienced might not be there and you can pick up the story again.
Start your recycling schedule for your work. Maybe previous plot holes will be patched this time. Remember, someone is out there waiting to hear your story so don’t let anything stop you. If a story isn’t working, don’t stress yourself out. Stop. Take a breather and move on to another story. Then, circle back to it and try again.
Follow as I post on my progress throughout the month and share the experience.
~Yoon Ju
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Writer's Block Inc 