Hey folks!
Today's post will concern itself with the single most important line I've gotten out of The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone.
It goes something like (paraphrased) this:
If your plan fails or you hit a roadblock - THINK BIGGER!
Why is it so relevant?
Let me start off with an example right away. As you know I've been working on the outline of a new book (series) in the cyberpunk genre. I had a specific question in mind about what it should be about. BUT I am not an outliner. I used to pants my way through everything... until the concept I wanted to talk about became so big they stopped making sense when pantsed. I then decided to outline despite the failure of earlier attempts (I've tried a LOT of writing techniques over the years) to do so.
The outline was going quite well. It wasn't perfect or perfectly detailed but it did make sense - somewhat.
Until yesterday.
I was chugging along nicely with my plot for the second installment of the series (each installment has its own 'question' I am trying to answer) when I realized that 'damn this character turned into a Mary Sue' and 'damn this sounds a lot like Deus Ex Machina'. I ignored these voices for a while and finished the initial outline anyway.
At night, then, it was difficult to sleep, which it hadn't been when I worked on the first installment. This made me concerned - because I know what this means. It means something is wrong with the book I'm writing at the moment!
I slept. I woke up in an even worse state. It's a bit like being concerned about something when a plot just feel 'wrong'. I can't get my mind of it and am distracted because I NEED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM. I'm big on problem solving and I recognize problems very easily. This means if there is an unsolved problem I'm just antsy.
Ok.
It's now about an hour since waking up and I've just finished breakfast (sweet sticky rice! Don't judge!).
The 10X Rule came to me as I was eating breakfast.
What if I'm working on the wrong section of the book series? What if the plot of installment 2 actually belongs to installment 1 still? It hit me then. I'd been working on the wrong question (I try to answer a question with each book of the series so installment one is connected to question one and installment two to question two). I'd skipped ahead to question two when question one was not yet sufficiently answered.
Oh boy.
So what's next? This is where the line from The 10X Rule comes into play: If your plan fails or you hit a roadblock, THINK BIGGER!
I can say without any shame that my first plan failed. I did not think big enough. This means in order to fix the outline for the first question I'll have to THINK BIGGER. I hit a roadblock precisely because I was getting impatient. I wanted to finish the outline for at least installment 1 and WRITE ALREADY. I started to hurry. I missed the entire point and ended up with bad plot and unnecessary Mary Sure characters.
This means today I'm going back to installment 1. Will it be easy? Nah. It will be even harder than what I already have. Will it 'take a while'? I think it might. I've already been working on the outline of installment 1 for a week (though admittedly only about an hour a day). BUT! I refuse to settle for 'mediocre'. I refuse to settle for 'this will do'. AND. It will be FUN! And you know the even bigger benefit? It will make the story so much better! It will make it so much more meaningful. It might even be possible in this way to come close to the vision of the story I have in my head.
The moral of the story?
You don't have writer's block. You have impatience-block. You did not think as much or as elaborately about your story as you should have. You need to re-do your outline/first draft. You need to truly understand what and why things are happening in order to fix your stories and make them the best they can be!
Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments!
WriteBot, bleep bloop!
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