| I am currently writing a New Adult novel (spoiler alert: it is coming out this fall), and I was totally stuck. I had no idea how to solve the problem of my protagonist not having enough agency. Then I headed into my “Harry Potter” room (it has a little cubby that looks like the room that Harry lived in under the stairs), and I saw it: a binder of my creative writing anchor project from high school. For those following at home, my anchor project is the same idea/story as my current novel. I looked at it, and I had a feeling it had the answers that I needed. I took the binder and brought it to my office. Then I stared at it for at least a half hour. I am going to be honest with you: I was scared. I was afraid it was going to be awful. You know what? It was. But that’s okay. It means I’ve made progress! Sure, I had to get up to pace around every page or so when I read it. But it gave me answers. Not to the central problem, but it helped me with some other questions I had. Apparently, old-school me had my back. Not with the main problem, but she was so inexperienced that she didn’t realize there was one! She hadn’t really learned the basics of narrative structure yet. Still, she was super creative and gave me some solutions. And I had a good laugh at some of the more ridiculous lines and concepts. What does this have to do with you? Go back and check out your older writing. While it may not be directly related to your book, it may still give you inspiration. If nothing else, it will remind you how far you’ve come! |