That dreaded 30,000 word wall
Your number could be higher or lower, but writing the first 30,000 words of a novel often brings me to a solid standstill. Like, I have no idea what to write next. My wonderful plot and interesting characters have simply run out of things to do or say.
Does this happen to you?
It’s like writer’s block on steroids.
Here’s the thing. I’m a “pantser.” In other words, instead of plotting a whole novel, I write by the seat of my pants, on the fly, free to allow unexpected people and situations to arise. I love it when that happens.
This is how Stephen King writes and if it’s good enough for him…
I come up with an idea for a plot and a few interesting disasters. I figure out what the heroine and hero want more than anything else and the lie each believes. And then I start writing with a goal of 100,000 words. But I often hit a wall at some point. I’m convinced I could write the first 30,000 words of any halfway decent idea.
My current novel has come to an ugly end at 50,000 words.
What do you do when you hit the word wall? Do you toss your hands up, back it up to the Cloud, and move on to something else, promising yourself you’ll get back to it someday? It ain’t gonna happen. By the time you go back to it, years later, you won’t be the same writer you are today. Sorry.
I understand how painful it is to love a plot and characters and have to walk away. After all, 30,000 words don’t write themselves. It took a lot of time and thought to get them down. What a waste.
Actually, they aren’t wasted at all; they just might need a word-ectomy.
What to do?
- First, don’t panic. You haven’t suddenly become a person who can’t write.
- Take a break. Walk away from it for awhile, maybe a few days. Give your characters a chance to breathe. Often they will return and get you back on track. The ideas begin to come again.
- Don’t be afraid to edit. Very often, the problem is that you’ve written your characters into a corner. That’s what I’ve done to my current work-in-progress. You will have to excise that corner.
- I understand how hard it is to remove 5,000, 10,000 words. Don’t throw them away. Don’t think about all of the words you’re taking out. Save them in a separate file. And then start from an earlier point in the story; a place full of unrealized opportunities.
- Consider combining the “plotter” and “pantser” ideas into something that makes sense to you. Plot the basic storyline, write a few character references — as if you were writing a reference for an employee who is leaving your company. Imagine the setting and a few more characters — good and bad. Write all this down somewhere.
- Then start over from your new place. If you truly love your characters and plot, starting over from an earlier place in the story — before you wrote yourself out of it — should energize you as you see new ideas and ways to get your characters in and out of trouble.
Fiction demands everything you have inside — every life experience, every conversation, every preconceived idea, every sight you have seen, every tragedy and every joy.
Writing fiction is a different animal from writing non-fiction, a report for work, or an email. Fiction demands everything you have inside — every life experience, every conversation, every preconceived idea, every sight you have seen, every tragedy and every joy.
Fiction wants, and takes, all of you. If you aren’t committed to this particular story line and people, you aren’t going to make it.
That’s because writing a novel takes determination. It takes a never-give-up attitude.
I love this anecdote about Winston Churchill during World War II. He was asked to speak at the commencement ceremony at a boys school. Everyone waited in anticipation for the inspiring speech he would give.
When it was time for him to speak, he rose, walked to the lectern, looked out over the sea of young boys and said,
“Never give up. Never give up. Never, never give up.”
And then he sat down.
Hitting the word-wall is frustrating and discouraging. Do I want to remove 5,000 to 10,000 words of my novel? NO. And that’s because those words are really, really good. They are interesting and reveal aspects of several characters’, well, character.
But those words have brought the story to a dead end. The hero is gone already and I’m only half way there. What am I going to do without a hero? Arrgggg!
I will perform a word-ectomy with a fine-tuned cursor. Out they go and, hopefully, I’ll find another place for them. If I don’t, then off they go to that place where unused words hang out. I’m sure they will enjoy meeting your unused words as well.
Susan L Stewart is an author and artist living in Colorado with her husband. Her website is SusanLStewart.com.
