3 Reasons Your Romance Manuscript Feels Stuck
Several years ago, I attended a writer’s conference and heard a very big-name, bestselling author say, “Writer’s block isn’t real.”
She was either joking, or a unicorn.
In my experience, writer’s block is very real.
I’ve written 40+ novels, and every now and then there’s one that seems to write itself, but the vast majority of my books I’ve experienced writer’s block at least once. Hell, some books feel like they’re nothing but writer’s block.
I think there are two causes of writer’s block:
Burnout: 10% of the time
The Story is Broken: 90% of the time
If you sense it’s the first one, step away. Close the laptop, quit looking at screens, do something other than chew on your plot.
If when you come back, you still feel like you’re rolling the story uphill? It’s possible something needs fixing.
Below are most 3 common blocks. Whenever a story is feeling “stuck” one of these is almost always the culprit.
1. Your character doesn’t know what she’s trying to do.
(Using “she” for simplicity, but this applies to any POV character).
Your character should be able to wake up every morning with a specific purpose, as it relates to your story.
In my book To Sir With Love, Gracie is trying to save her shop.
In my book Ready to Run, Jordan is trying to recruit Luke for a reality TV show.
In my book Miranda in Retrograde, Miranda is trying to do what her horoscope tells her to do.
In Walk of Shame, which is probably the “loosest” of all of my plots, Georgie is trying to one-up/annoy her nemesis Andrew, so I know my job as a writer is to put them on the page together so they can antagonize the crap out of each other.
If your story starts to drag, ask yourself what your POV’s plan is. What’s her agenda? If she doesn’t know what she’s doing next, then you don’t know what you’re writing next.
2. Your characters aren’t fighting their feelings hard enough.
One of the best editorial comments I’ve ever gotten was from Sara, my dev editor for Made in Manhattan. I knew that the first draft I sent her was fine, but it was missing something, and I couldn’t figure out what. She fixed the entire book with a single note:
Cain seems too into Violet too soon; I want to see him fighting his feeling a bit more.
It may seem like an odd note for a romance novel; don’t we want the hero falling for the heroine? Yes, but the pacing is essential. You want to build the anticipation so that reader dying to get to the end of the novel for some relief.
In the case of Cain and Violet, I had a handful of very nice scenes with the two of them in the middle getting to know each other, but there was no bite. I had the pull, but no push. Cain had softened up too quickly, which meant that there was no real urgent need to keep turning the pages. I sprinkled in just a few places with Cain clearly pushing her away (emotionally), and the entire manuscript righted itself immediately.
Here’s how to know if your manuscript is suffering from this same issue. Ask each of your characters separately, “Could you live happily-ever-after with this person? Why not?” The answer has to be NO up until the very-last minute, and they must be able to explain why clearly and with conviction.
(Disclaimer: if you’re writing an unrequited love story, make sure that your NOT in-love character does enough resisting for the both of them!)
3. Things are going too well.
Imagine Star Wars if Vader hadn’t killed Obi Wan. Or Harry Pottery if Draco hadn’t persistently been such a little bitch. Things would have been way easier for Luke and Harry, respectively, and the stories would have been way more boring.
Obstacles keep things interesting. If you’re bored, you may be missing obstacle.
Have your hero overhear something he shouldn’t have.
Have your heroine get fired.
Someone’s ex shows up.
The power goes out. - There’s only one bed.
The heroine’s sister gets engaged and triggers insecurities.
A rival swoops in and steals the dream space.
The hero’s passive-aggressive mom gets involved.
A lie/secret is exposed.
The Takeaway
Writer’s block is often less about a lack of creativity or talent and more about specific, solvable problems. If something is blocking your way, don’t assume that it’s a huge boulder that can’t be moved. More often it’s a tiny pebble that can be flicked way easier than you think. You just have to know where to look.
