Welcome to another edition of Open Book Blog Hop. This week’s question is: “We all get discouraged at one time or another (or all the time!) in the process of writing. How do you defeat the feeling?”
I get more discouraged with technology than writing. But once in a while, I’ll find myself stuck on a story or poem. I put it aside and work on something else for a while. Once years ago, I started writing a novel and painted myself into a corner. I realized the piece would work better as a short story. I cope, one way or another.
How about you? Even if you’re not a writer, surely you get discouraged. How do you handle it? You can comment below or click here to participate in this week’s hop and read other bloggers’ responses.
New! Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me
Copyright 2021 by Abbie Johnson Taylor.
Independently published with the help of DLD Books.
Sixteen-year-old Natalie’s grandmother, suffering from dementia and confined to a wheelchair, lives in a nursing home and rarely recognizes Natalie. But one Halloween night, she tells her a shocking secret that only she and Natalie’s mother know. Natalie is the product of a one-night stand between her mother, who is a college English teacher, and another professor.
After some research, Natalie learns that people with dementia often have vivid memories of past events. Still not wanting to believe what her grandmother has told her, she finds her biological father online. The resemblance between them is undeniable. Not knowing what else to do, she shows his photo and website to her parents.
Natalie realizes she has some growing up to do. Scared and confused, she reaches out to her biological father, and they start corresponding.
Her younger sister, Sarah, senses their parents’ marital difficulties. At Thanksgiving, when she has an opportunity to see Santa Claus, she asks him to bring them together again. Can the jolly old elf grant her request?
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My Corner 
For me sometimes I have to live to fight another day. Writing can be very difficult especially when there is a deadline hanging over your head. So, sometimes I will wait and do it another day if I can. Sometimes later the same day.
I also find that thinking about my reader and how this content will help encourage or help them do something better help motivate me more in the moment.
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I know what you mean about your writing helping others. When I published My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds, I hoped the book would help other caregivers, and I think it has.
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Yes, I agree. I came back to ‘Examining Kitchen Cupboards’ after about 2 years of being stuck regarding an ending, and then finished it in one burst of writing after the ending suddenly came to me.
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I had a similar issue with My Ideal Partner, a memoir about how I met and married my late husband, then cared for him for six years after he suffered two debilitating strokes. I started writing it soon after he passed and managed to get in a lot of details about how I cared for him before it got too intense, and I had to put it aside. This was a good thing because by the time I picked it up again about a year later, I’d almost forgotten how I did everything.
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I don’t have the patience to set something aside for that long. I’ll fight thru it and then shelve even though I know it isn’t good enough. And maybe sometime in the future I’ll look at it again and decide if it’s worth touching.
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Well, if that plan works for you, that’s great! We should each do what’s comfortable.
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