I'm no writing guru by any means, but in my own series of false starts, I've found that when I am jsut spinning my wheels, the reason falls into one of three broad categories:  overplanning, painting myself into a corner, and scale.

I sometimes imagine that I can plan out every detail of plot and character right from the start.  But then, when I actually begin to write, I find that the characters don't want to follow my plan.  If you've created good characters, they take on a life of their own.  You might find that what you had planned for them is not something that such a character would actually do.  As the reality of the story as driven by the characters diverges from the plan, it's easy to find yourself staring at the blank page in a futile attempt to steer it back, only to find that there is no plausible way to do so.

Of course, you will likely have a plot outline that you intend to follow, but it is sometimes best to leave it as loose as possible, and let the characters decide for themselves, so to speak, the details of how they will realize your plot.  Or maybe the character(s) you have created is just not what the plot calls for.  As the writer, you're God, you can change a character to be whatever you want him to be, or what the plot demands.  Ironically, the better you have created him, the harder that is to do.

Painting yourself into a corner is similar to this, but it can happen with plot as well as characters.  You may find that you have created circumstances from which there is no interesting or plausible way to get the the ending you want.  So either the ending has to change, if the current circumstances are compelling enough to demand that, or you have to back out of the corner and redirect the action.

Scale can also be thought of as pacing, though there is a subtle difference between the two.  In the novel I am now attempting (my first try), I fell into this trap.  I believe that every story has a natural size required to tell it properly.  My current idea is one that needs a long novel to tell, which is why I decided to try my hand and writing a novel.  However, forty pages in, I found that I was racing through it at a pace that would finish up the whole thing in 150 pages.  That's not necessarily bad if the story you want to tell can be told in that length, but this one can't.  

The real problem here was that I was glossing over details and character development that needed to be laid out in more detail, probably due to a rush to get to the 'good parts'.  I found myself explaining tons of background material, earlier events, and character issues right before they were needed for some scene. It made the writing into a chore and made each new scene harder and harder to write.

What was really needed was to make this background part of the story - it had to be shown directly to the reader, and revealed a little at a time, rather than explained in one breathless rush just as it is needed.  This, I realized, was why my gut feeling of the length of the story was in the 800-900 page range.  I knew, even before I consciously realized it, that it would take a long time to bring out all the background that the reader would need to really get the story.

I've also written mostly short stories, and find that trying to do a novel is an entirely different mindset - a novel is not simply just a longer short story. The techniques and habits for short stories don't translate well - if at all - to novel writing.

Of course, the opposite can happen for a story that has a shorter natural length.  You may find that you are getting bogged down in details that don't add anything to the story, and that each new word just digs the hole deeper.  

Any of these things make it very hard to get motivated to write that next word, let alone an entire new scene. I think that writer's block is often a symptom of a systemic problem with what you have written already.  It is some part of your subconcious telling you that continuing on is not the right path.  Going back and fixing the problem is necessary before forward progress can continue.  It can mean a very painful process of lopping off big blocks of what you think is great writing.  They may be great, but they may also not be right for the story at hand.  

It is more likely that you can find these things yourself, even that you already know all about them if you just admit it, than that somebody else will be able to point them out to you.  

Nobody knows your story like you do - afterall, it exists only in your head until you successfully get it out on paper. Quality feedback is great for some kinds of problems, but not necessarily for this problem.  Writing is a lonely job, and very likely you are on your own in trying to fix the problem of a story that is stuck in a rut.

That was editorial. This is topical. I would be happy to read your work and offer my humble critique.

And if you can't submit stuff here for critique, who not? Maybe they don't want to compete with other critique boards. If so, bummer. Let's make a critique circle via email then.

DwC

Toasted Cheese does critiques of chapters, which you don't really want. Critters does entire novels, but only SF, Fantasy or horror.

But other than that I'm having the same problem with a long story: it's hard to get feedback on plot, pacing and other long-term things.

I can't really think of a solution, other than imposing on friends, which probably means doing a lot of favours in return; or finding a student or someone who can be paid... certainly not an option I can afford. It's a tough one...

While you're correct that Write On! doesn't have a designated system for critiques and feedback, the diaries are your space and if you want to post some of your ideas there and ask for feedback, there's nothing stopping you. Just don't expect feedback, because this isn't a critique site.

I think writers block surfaces when your intuition and playfulness gets stuck behind analysis and overdoses of self critique. You may need to refind the stage where writing becomes a simple unreflected joy. Later you can have your internal editor look at it and kill your darlings. Don't be afraid to trash large portions of your material, do even enjoy it.  "writing is a bloody business" said swedish writer/director Ingmar Bergman in relation to this.

If there is no drive or passion left, there is no story.

For me (and I suspect for many others), the single hardest thing about writing is writing every day. Habit and routine have never exactly been watchwords in my life, and it's tempting to only write when I feel inspired - it feels good then, it feels right, and when I'm lucky, it can last for days. The problem, of course, is that unless I'm inspired all the time I can't complete anything longer than a two-page op-ed column. Trying to write an extended piece of fiction that way is just begging for disappointment.

The thing I hear most often about Ernest Hemingway (when people discuss his writing, rather than his suicide, drinking habit, or cats) is that he would work on one paragraph a day. He'd spend as long as he needed on that one paragraph, and no more. That story might well be apocryphal (though it would explain the number of shorter titles in his body of work), but it illustrates the discipline of writing.

To overstate the obvious (one of my peculiar talents), a writer must write, and write regularly, even when it doesn't feel like anything worthwhile is coming. Often that feeling is more subjective than factual, but even if you really are producing crap, I've learned the hard way that it's worth it just to be producing something - it's too easy to lose the discipline if you let it slide until you're in the mood. You lose touch with the characters, you rework the plot into a hairball, or otherwise irretrievably damage your mental model of the project.

So by all means, seek feedback, edit, and do all that, but don't stop writing.

And by the way, good luck with the novel.

OK,
- B
http://www.bradheintz.com/ - updated daily