"'Writing is so easy for me; I never have a frustrating writing session,' says a writer who’s totally lying.
"You’re going to have hellish days, days when you’re thisclose to printing out your manuscript only for the satisfaction of
setting it aflame and watching that garbage burn.
"(Protip: Do that in the shower or the kitchen sink, and not, like, on the carpet near the drapes and the lighter fluid.)
"Bad writing sessions are unavoidable. And sometimes a crummy writing day bleeds
into another, and another, and soon it becomes a bad writing week, and then Sunday turns to Monday and you’re still stopped up, and if you can’t rein it in and you can’t get unstuck then, look, now it’s two weeks, and now a month, and then damn, where did the summer go and what’s to do about that vow you made to finish your book by Halloween?
"So, what’s to
do?
"Writer’s frustration can become a runaway eighteen-wheeler if you allow it. You need to locate one of those ramps with the steep incline that will slow your roll, allow you to catch your breath and get back on that highway to success! (Boy, have I slaughtered this metaphor.)
"If your bad writing days are beginning to pile up like so much jetsam and/or flotsam, it might be time to step away from your WIP for a moment and imagine it as a WIB instead."
