I’m about a third of the way through writing a new book, and I’m trying to figure out how to get my protagonists from where they are now to where I need them to be (for the plot to move forward as intended).

My original plans for this transition made more sense in theory than practice, and my last couple attempts to write have been confounded by this hurdle. I’ve come up with several possible solutions, none of which have been quite right.

This isn’t an uncommon problem; I’ve faced variations of the same with my other projects, not just my long-form fiction.

There’s a project I started late last year that didn’t turn out the way I wanted; it filled a gap in my portfolio that wasn’t as large as it seemed to be from the outside.

I have ideas as to how I might move forward, but initial experiments and efforts haven’t panned out. So now I sit and wait, mulling the matter, making only (frustratingly) negligible concrete progress.

When making things, sometimes the initial jolt of inspiration and the scaffolding you deploy during the planning phase will be enough to carry you from your first step to the finish line. More often, though, there’ll be periods of reflection, confusion, doubt, and reassessment along the way. Lots of un-asked-for opportunity to wonder and worry and question the whole endeavor.

But moving forward in fits and starts is still moving forward, and almost always it’s not the speed at which we move, nor the consistency of that movement that ultimately matters most: it’s our dedication to trying difficult things, and our decision to continue trying even when our initial attempts don’t lead to anything of note. That flavor of fortitude is more closely correlated with positive outcomes than thin-stretch momentum and blind enthusiasm.

I’m about to sit down for another book-writing session. I took a walk through my freezing cold neighborhood to see if that would knock anything lose, and I have a few new ideas I want to try out—to jot down and play around with, to see if they might help me overcome this stumbling block (or provide me with justification for bypassing the block entirely).

We’ll see how it goes.

If nothing else, at the end of this writing session I will have identified several more paths that don’t work, and that knowledge will help me further winnow my way toward one of the many possible proper courses for this book and my ambitions for it.

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