The Author Stuck List by Becca Syme is Syme’s Author Stuck Cards in book form. The book (and cards) are for any author who is having problems progressing with the writing of their book.
As a writing coach, I’ve seen and spoken with a good number of authors who are having trouble writing. It’s a common problem that can be anything from complete avoidance of their writing—not wanting to even think about it—to being unsure of what happens next in their WIP.
The really nice thing about Syme’s book is that no matter how you’re stuck, she’s got some great ideas to help get you writing again.
Syme encourages the reader to take a step back to figure out exactly why you’re stuck. To help, she provides six possible reasons:
- You are lacking clarity
- You’re bored
- You can’t progress
- There is an emotional discord
- There is some sort of environmental block
- You have a lack of information.
After defining each reason thoroughly, the book is then separated into sections for each. Within the sections she provides thirteen tools for getting unstuck. These can be anything from encouraging writers to think about the trope in their book to taking a shower to moving what you’ve written onto an e-reader and reading it as a reader would. She’s got some unique ideas and some standard, well-known ideas (set a deadline). And Syme doesn’t just list the ideas, she goes into depth in each one explaining what should be done and how it works to get you unstuck.
The book is extremely helpful giving concrete solutions for any author who is stuck for any reason.
Even if you aren’t currently stuck in your writing, there are some great ideas of things you can do to help with the writing of your story. A lot of writers follow Syme like a cult leader. They praise her courses and her methodology—she is a certified Clifton Strengths coach. If you are feeling the need for a little push, or want to delve deeper into your personality type in order to make yourself more productive, Syme’s program may be what you need.
Personally, I have never taken a course with her, but I have heard her speak and have always found what I learned helpful. This book is the same—you don’t need to prescribe to any sort of personality type casting to get a lot of good use from her book.