Avoiding...Your WIP

I have a confession to make...

I haven't worked on, edited, looked at, or even opened my latest WIP (work in progress) story in over a month.

Now, for some of you, that may seem like no big deal, as if no progress on something that is a side interest and something that generates almost zero income for a month is nothing to worry about. But, to a writer, that's almost unimaginable. 

I've been working on this particular story for years. I jumped right in--as I usually do--when I first came up with the concept. I wrote about 20k words and then I got stuck. That happens a lot with me. Last year, I blew the electronic dust off the story and jumped in again. I added a new storyline to run concurrent with the existing one and got another 10k words. I even did something I almost never do--I outlined where I wanted the story to go.

A few months ago I added another 10k words, and then...

Nothing.

I know it's been more than a month because I haven't even implemented the notes from my writing group for early May. 

I remember when I got stuck writing my middle-grade novel that came out in 2018. I was working to complete the 50k word in one month and there were a couple of times when I just wrote and wrote--all to keep writing. I wrote stuff that didn't make sense. I wrote things that I had not researched or knew they'd be in the story. But I kept at it. On my current WIP, I've been doing that for the past 15k words. The problem is, it's not working out the way it did before, and I think I expected it to do that, to come together the way my novel did.

And since it's not...it's just sitting there, being avoided.

I know me. I know how I write. I know that there'll be something that kicks me in the butt and gets the gears moving again. The problem is, I don't know when that'll be. I still like the story and think it has legs, so much so, one of the reasons I've been avoiding it is because it's not reaching its potential, the potential I believe it has.

Theoretically, I can get it finished in a few weeks time, that is, if I do attack it. If so, I would be one happy writer. But, for now, it's not going anywhere, as long as I continue to avoid it. Looks like it's time to get to work.