Once Upon a Time…

…there was a girl who loved stories. She read voraciously, imagined she was the heroine of stories in any given situation, and one day, decided to try writing a novel of her own.

Needless to say, writing a novel and reading one or even imagining little scenarios are vastly different things. The girl found she could make a good start to any story, but hadn’t a clue where to take the characters once she established them.

After a while, she learned more about building a story, mapping out where to have the plot move, and growing characters into multi-dimensional people who you’d like to meet for coffee and discuss how life’s going.

And she wrote a book.

Several, actually. But she hadn’t accounted for how difficult it might be to field a variety of setbacks from both personal and professional areas, and the months turned into years, with no more writing from her. The time and energy had become scarce in the face of everything going on.

But then a spark returned.

And she began to write again. Slowly and uncertainly at first, but then it gained momentum and grew. And she’s finding her stride again, making plans for new books and restructuring some old ones.

Do you ever find yourself feeling stuck? How do you find a path out of the mire?