Gum Stuck in Your Story?

You know how sometimes you're too close to your story and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere? It's kind of like getting gum stuck on your pants. My daughter put her gum on my back pocket. I didn't even know it. I sat in a chair and it smeared everywhere. Thankfully, it was a wooden chair and not cloth. But the pants are made out of cloth! So I put my pants in the freezer to help it come out. But since it was so smeared down into the fibers, I had to work at it a lot more. Every few days, I got the pants out and scraped the gum a bit with a butter knife. I think the pants stayed in the freezer for a month! I finally got frustrated about that not working and had to use another tactic. I used dish soap and a Tbsp. of salt and scrubbed them against each other. Threw them in the washer, and presto! Clean pants, again. They were new ones, too.

So if you're stuck, let your story cool off. With your writing, give it a month-long freeze-fest and then pick it up with refreshed eyes and a cooler temper. I guarantee you'll be able to see something that doesn't belong and edit accordingly. It truly is amazing the things we notice in our writing after a month of not looking at it, especially after several re-writes. If that doesn't work, try a different tactic. Start fresh and RE-WRITE it again, differently. New character. New order of events. Change up the names. Change up the setting. SOMETHING! If we keep at it long enough, our stories will eventually come out clean. With a "fresh" voice, too!