Usually, it’s a very comfortable rut. All our characters are down there with us, keeping us company, cooking up tea, playing chess, and just generally having a happy ol’ time.
Life isn’t very difficult, since we never have to force ourselves to reach higher or stretch farther. We get to sit in our comfy swivel chairs and watch our stories replay themselves, with slight variations, over and over again, like TV Land marathons.
Actually, you say, that doesn’t sound so bad. What’s the big problem here?
Well, I’ll tell you. The problem, in a word, is: stagnation. And where stagnation lives, art dies. As Writer’s Digest editor Jessica Strawser pointed out in February 2011:
…the best writers are the ones who never stop trying to get better—the ones who set their egos aside, no matter how successful they are, and challenge themselves to push the limits of what they can achieve.
Challenge Yourself to Tell Each Story Differently
Whether they consciously realize it or not, most writers have one particular story they’re meant to tell, and they tell it over and over again all their lives.
For example, Charles Dickens’s body of work represents a deep concern for the poor and indebted.
My own fiction often carries a theme of redemption through self-sacrifice.
It’s important to recognize and understand this inevitable repetition—but it’s also important to understand that these repeating themes are no excuse not to push the boundaries of our craft.
Novelist Joe Meno, in an interview with Mart Castle, explained the difference:
The thing I love about [Dave Eggers and Denis Johnson] is their willingness to try and reinvent themselves from book to book, especially Johnson, who’s written crime/noir books, science-fiction-inspired books, books about drug experiences, spy-influenced material. I’d hate it if someone read one of my books and thought, this is exactly like the last thing he wrote. … It’s a goal I have, writing books with very different styles and tones.
8 Signs You Might Be in a Writing Rut
Thanks to laziness and fear—and often obliviousness—it’s much too easy to fall into comfortable patterns that eventually descend into blatant repetition (both signs you’re stuck in a writing rut.
So how can you know if you’re teetering on the edge of a writing rut? Following are eight signs:
1. You find yourself reusing familiar phrases.
2. You write stories that fit only into one particular niche.
3. Your stories return to the same thematic arc over and over.
4. Your writing is no longer challenging.
5. You never experiment with POV, tense, or style.
6. Your characters are all the same person (except maybe they have different hair colors).
7. Your stories all begin and end in basically the same way.
8. You’ve stopped studying the craft.
Identifying one or two of these symptoms in your writing life isn’t necessarily indicative of a problem. But if you find yourself nodding your head at three or more, it may be time to take action and evaluate how you can push yourself out of your comfort zone by making your next story an exciting new adventure—for both you and your readers.
Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Have you ever been in a writing rut? Tell me in the comments!
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