Bridget Mccullough asked Jeaniene Frost:

Bit of an offbeat question here, I've been trying my hand at writing PR and you're petty much my writing idol so my question is: Do you ever get stuck or in a writing slump and if so, how do you get past it?

Jeaniene Frost First, yes, I've been stuck in writing slumps before. Every single author I know has been hit by them at some point, so don't feel bad if you're experiencing one. Second, I'm sorry to say that there's no easy answer on how to fix it. Using myself as an example, they've been caused by different reasons, and that means different solutions (which might vary with other authors, btw.) Slump from burnout = forcing myself to take time off, even if it's just a week and I'm in the middle of a bruising deadline. That time off can result in MUCH better overall progress than trying to force myself to write every day, and then having to chuck many of those "forced" words later because they're terrible. However, if I'm in a slump from overcriticizing myself--and this happens far more frequently--then I have to give myself permission to hate what I'm writing, and consider the words "crap" just to get past that feeling because 9 times out of 10, the words AREN'T crap. It's just my inner editor being a real bitch ;). Slump from preoccupation with another story idea = should you write the other story instead? Sometimes, the answer is no, and it's just a "ooh, shiny!" distraction that many writers have while we still finish the book we're working on. But sometimes, a strong pull toward another story means you SHOULD stop your work-in-progress. I was 40k + words into a time-travel romance when I got the idea for HALFWAY TO THE GRAVE, and guess what? To this day, I've never finished that time-travel romance, but I've written almost two dozen stories in my vampire world, so I'd say that switching stories worked out for me on that one :). So, in essence, there's no one answer, so try different things until you find a remedy that works, and don't lose hope! Slumps don't last forever, even if it can feel that way while it's happening. Best of luck to you with your stories!

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