Transcription
You open your draft because you're ready to make progress on your book. But a few minutes later, you're back in a familiar place. Maybe you're rereading the opening again, or adjusting a scene you've already adjusted, or even >> [clears throat] >> um, looking for help on YouTube. None of this looks like avoidance. You're spending time with the book, and you're trying to make progress.
But here's what I've learned after years of working with writers. The ones who stay stuck the longest are not avoiding their books. They're showing up regularly, but they're showing up in the wrong way. So, in this video, I want to show you the moment most writers miss and how you can be on the alert for it. So, when you sit down to write, you actually do push your book forward all the way to the end.
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So, there's one thing I know about you as a writer, and that is that most of the time when you feel stuck on a story, some part of you already knows that something is off. You may not be able to explain it yet. You may not know, for example, whether the problem is the character, or the middle, or the ending, or the structure, or something else entirely, but you can feel it. I know this because in all my work with writers, they always know it. This is something that's really cool about being a writer. We have these instincts for story. They're actually built in inside of us. And it's interesting because when writers get stuck, it's not because they're bad writers or because something is wrong with them. Actually, when a writer gets stuck, it's a good sign because it means that somewhere in the writer's brain, they know part of this story isn't working. They're just not sure what it is.
So, first, if you're stuck on your story, I want you to think of it differently. Doesn't mean something's wrong with you. It doesn't mean that you're a bad writer. Probably means that you are a writer, that you have that instinctual talent to understand when something just isn't flowing right. The only issue here is that you just don't know how to fix it yet. You want to honor this instinct inside of you because often it's going to pick up the real signal from the story.
But here's the problem. At the same time, your brain has another job. So your brain is kind of fighting with your writerly instincts.
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You can think of the two as separate things. You've got your instincts for story that are firing and saying something's not right here. And then you've got the rest of your brain. So when this happens and your writing instincts fire, the rest of your brain unfortunately doesn't just say, "Oh, wonderful. There's an issue here. So let's investigate [music] this complex creative problem with patience and emotional maturity." Uh-huh. That's not what your brain does, right? Instead, it acts sort of like a toddler. All it wants is its pacifier or its binky or whatever you want to call it. Or in brain language, safety and relief.
When your writing instincts alert you, alarm's going off to something going on with the draft. You feel uncomfortable. And that's good because that is your writing instincts letting you know. You can feel it. Unfortunately, your brain doesn't like it when you feel uncomfortable. And it knows because of that that you may have to change something in the story, or you may have to realize that you haven't developed the skills yet that you need to make this story work. And your brain is afraid that you're going to feel bad because of that. That what you really wanted was just to be able to write this story, have it easily flow, everything works perfectly, and before long, you've got a book you can hold in your hands and sell on the market. Your brain knows that's what you want.
So, the instant that your writerly instincts tell you, um, something's wrong here, the brain goes, uh-oh, this is uncomfortable. We don't want this. And it wants to keep you comfortable. So, your brain is going to scramble for something that it can do to help you feel comfortable again. But if you know something's wrong with your story, you're uncomfortable. You're struggling and you're worrying and you're trying to figure things out and you are full of self-doubt and wondering if you should even be a writer at all. And your brain says, "This doesn't feel good. Let's do something that feels better."
So, what does it do? This is what I want you to notice. This is the biggest message in this video. When you are stuck on a book, that's usually a good thing. It means your writerly instincts are working like they should. But your brain is going to take you the wrong direction. Your brain doesn't like this discomfort. So, it's going to send you down a road that feels productive because it wants you to feel better, but is actually destroying your progress on your book little by little, day by day. So, it looks like you're writing and it looks like you're making progress, but you're not.
What is this dead-end road the brain has just sent you down? Let me show you. So, I have to ask you, have you seen that Subaru commercial with the dogs in the car? It's like a dog family in the Subaru, and they're driving, and they're in a roundabout. If you haven't seen this commercial, you got to go check this out. In fact, I put the link to this Subaru commercial in the description if you want to go check it out, just so you know what I'm talking about and because it's kind of cute.
So, [music] anyway, these dogs are going round and around, round this roundabout. It looks like the dad dog is driving the Subaru. And the GPS in the Subaru keeps saying, "Take the second right. Take the second right. Take the second right." And it keeps repeating that command, but the dogs don't take the second right. They just keep circling the roundabout. Around and around they go. And the GPS keeps trying, "Take the second right." And the other drivers around the dog car, they're starting to honk and they're getting upset. And then there's a cat involved, naturally, because apparently the road needed a little more emotional conflict. And yet the dogs keep going round and round and round. "Take the second right."
And then the announcer says, and I promise I'm not doing a Subaru commercial right here. I'm not, I'm not advertising Subaru. I'm making a point for writers. So then the announcer says, "With up to 581 miles per tank, you can go on forever." Which is great if you're selling a Subaru, but a lot less great if that's what your manuscript is doing.
Because in this little writing version of the roundabout, which is what your brain sends you on, your writing instincts are the GPS. Your writing instincts are the GPS saying, "Take the second right." In other words, look here. Something's off here. This is the place where your story needs attention. That's your writing instincts. Think of them like your GPS. Okay? When your writing instincts, your GPS, says something's not right here, and suddenly you're stalled or you're stuck, that's because your GPS is saying something needs attention. And most of the time, those instincts are worth listening to. They're not going to hand you the full answer. And they're not going to say something like, "Oh, excuse me. The problem is that your antagonist pressure is not reaching the protagonist's inner wound." I mean, wouldn't that be nice? I would love it if they would do that. But usually, your instincts aren't that detailed. They just give you the feeling that something is off. And that feeling is your writing GPS saying, "Take the second right."
But then your brain is like that dog in the Subaru. It hears that instruction and realizes what it might mean. If you take that exit, for example, you may have to look at the part of the book that's not working. And you may have to change something that you liked. And you might have to cut pages, or pause long enough to learn a skill that you haven't needed up until now. And all this could make you feel anxious, or overwhelmed, or even discouraged, or worried that you won't actually be able to write this book. And your brain hates it when you feel these negative things. So instead of taking the exit that your instincts are pointing toward, your brain keeps you in the roundabout.
So here's the tricky part. The roundabout still feels like movement. You're still turning the wheel. You're still pressing on the gas, which means you're opening the file, rereading what you wrote, playing with the words, and writing a little bit here and there. So, it feels like you're doing something, but you're not actually taking the road that would move your story forward. This roundabout that we're talking about here is something I call the writing loop. You're going around and around and around, but you're not making any meaningful progress.
So, what is a writing loop exactly, and why is it so easy to fall into? Let's talk about that next, because you may be in one right now and not even really realize it.
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A writing loop is the protective route your brain sends you down when your writer's instincts have noticed a real problem with your story. But facing that problem feels uncomfortable, uncertain, too overwhelming, something negative. So the brain gives you something else to do. Usually, it's something that feels safe, or familiar, or like easy progress, even while in reality, you just keep circling back to the same stuck place. Let me give you an example. You may go back and reread the same pages because that feels like a reasonable way to get your bearings again, right? Or you might keep adjusting the beginning of the book because it feels clearer than the messy place where your story got hard. The activity itself isn't bad, but when you're in a writing loop, the activity becomes the place your brain sends you. So, you don't have to take the harder exit. And that exit is usually the place your instincts were pointing you toward in the first place. But your brain says, "Ah, let's just go around one more time." So, you stay busy. You open the file and you fiddle with it. And you probably feel better for a little while, but sooner or later, you come around again and there it is, the same stuck place waiting for you. Like that second right in the Subaru commercial. That is the writing loop.
So, how can you tell whether you're actually making progress on your book, or if you're in a loop? That's where we're going next.
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Here's how you can tell the difference between whether what you're doing is helping you to make real progress on your story, or whether you're trapped in a loop and just going around and around. Let's [music] say you reread a few pages and then you know where to begin again and off you go creating more chapters. In that case, great. The rereading helped you. But if you reread those pages and then go back and read something else, and then tweak the words a little, and then reread again without writing anything new, you might be in a loop. Let's try another example. Let's say you watch a cool writing video like this one and then use one idea from it to actually improve your story. Congratulations, that helped. And now you're moving forward. But if you watch one video and then watch another one, and then read some books, and then make some notes, and then watch another video, and never turn any of that information into real pages in your book, you might be in a loop.
So the question isn't, is this writing activity good or bad? The question is, what happens after I do it? Does it help the book move forward? Does it improve your story and make you more excited about finishing it? Or does it bring you back to the same stuck place with a little more frustration than before?
So, what if you're in a loop right now? What do you do about it? I'm going to give you a few examples next. Okay, the first example is what I call the later loop. So, maybe you want to write, but it feels like time just keeps slipping away from you. Every time you schedule in time, something else takes precedence and you don't get it done. This probably doesn't really look like a loop at first. It just looks like a busy life. But if this keeps happening to you, you're most likely in the later loop where you keep putting the book off. And most likely, there's a reason for that. Your GPS may be alerting you to some kind of issue in the story or in your writing process as a whole. The question is, what part of the book is troubling you? To take the exit out of this loop, you want to see if you can pinpoint exactly what's stopping you from writing. Probably not because you're really all that busy. All of us are busy, and we have to make writing a priority to be able to get it done. So, if you haven't done that, there may be something stopping you. Have you lost motivation for the story? Does your main character feel distant? Once you can name the exact thing that's troubling you, you're going to be much more likely to be able to take the exit and get out of the loop.
Here's another example. I call it the crowded story loop. Maybe your book just has too much in it. Too many characters, too many timelines, too many ideas and memories and magical rules and family secrets or side plots all elbowing each other for room in each scene. And every time you try to work on one piece, five other pieces start waving at you. So you freeze because everything feels important and you're not sure how to choose. This is the crowded story loop where there's just too much going on for you to be able to keep track of. So you keep looping around and around trying to juggle all of it. In that case, the way out is to remind yourself of the core pieces of this story, your protagonist, their main goal, their deep emotional wound. You revisit the core elements of the story so you can start cutting out the fluff. You stop asking, "Why am I stuck?" and start asking, "What really belongs in this book and what doesn't?"
So, these are just two examples. From my research and my work with writers, I've identified 11 loops that we can all get caught up in without even realizing it. And because every writer gets stuck differently, you need to know exactly which loop is holding your specific manuscript hostage. That's why I created the "Stuck Quiz," which is available exclusively inside our community at the Writer's Brain Studio. And if you're watching this before Thursday, July 23rd of 2026, you can still get into our community, the Studio, take the quiz, and attend the master class to learn more about these 11 loops and how to take the exit out of them. I'll leave the link for that below.
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So, your mission of the week, if you choose to accept it, do what I'm calling the second right test. Open your draft and find the place where you most recently felt that little tug of, "Something isn't working here." Write this at the top of the page: "My writer's instincts may be pointing to [music] blank." Then finish that sentence as honestly as you can. Maybe it's a scene that feels flat, a character choice that doesn't make sense, or the part of the book that you keep avoiding for some reason. Maybe you don't know yet, and all you can say is, "This section feels wrong." That's okay. Just write that. Then write this second sentence: "When I feel this discomfort, my brain usually sends me to [music] blank." And name the thing you tend to do next. Do you reread pages? Rewrite the opening? Polish wording that you've already got? Look for advice? That answer is important because it shows you the roundabout your brain keeps sending you into.
Now, for the exit, choose one small way to face that stuck place. If you want help with this, join us in the Writer's Brain Studio before July 23rd. As [music] a hint, what I find most often is it comes down to story structure. So stay tuned to the next video I have coming up for more on that, as it may help you get out of your loop. Because we don't want to be like the Subaru dogs. We want to take the exit and get our books finished. Check out the commercial if you want to at the link below, and I'll see you on the next one.
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