I believe it was Hemingway that once said he liked to stop writing for the day in mid-sentence because it gave him a place to start the next day. While I’ve never left sentences half finished, I do like his philosophy.

By now, I pretty much know when I’ve exhausted myself of words for the day. Some days are better than others. Some days, I struggle to write a paragraph.

It’s scary to think you’ve run out of words. What will I write tomorrow? Where will I start? Am I going to be able to move forward? Will I abandon this project? Am I wasting my time on this? It’s thoughts like that and obsessions that haunt writers every day.

Thomas Harris once said part of the joy of writing is sitting down and seeing who shows up to work, meaning his characters. What are they going to do today? What do they have to say? And on some days, you find yourself all alone. The words just won’t come. Those are usually good days to go back and read what you wrote the day before, or edit some previous chapters, or work on something completely different.

Writers have a need to create. We like to “have written” has the saying goes. That’s actually how I started this 1K Per Day project in which I’m attempting to write an 80,000 word first draft in 80 days. My previous work in progress had come to a full stop. I’d written out characters. I’d started over. I put characters back in. I just couldn’t get to a point where I was seeing the finish line. I’d put six months into the project already and was just growing tired and frustrated. So what did I do?

I stepped away and started working on something else.

And, as you know from my previous posts, it helped! The words have been flowing. I’m 4 to 5 days ahead of my word count goal. And I fully admit, at the end of most days, I have no idea where I’m going to start tomorrow. I think about it each night though. I try to stay ahead of my characters. I let them tell me where they want to go next. And each morning, I open the manuscript, and I don’t know if it’s divine intervention, but the words come. The characters show up to work.

So, some advice if you get stuck? Leave some space. Maybe you’ve reached your word count for the day and you could keep going, but it’s okay to stop. Make some notes, and pick up where you left off tomorrow even if it’s in the middle of a sentence.