How To Keep Moving When Stopped

Recently I was driving into downtown Denver for breakfast with a Morgan James author. There are many one-way streets in this section of the city. Suddenly the street where I was going was blocked off and had a detour. Without even a second thought, I turned and followed the detour and soon was back on track heading toward my meeting place. I did not let the detour throw me off from my destination. I did not get put off and quit and return home but found the way forward. My response comes from years of driving experience and understanding that sometimes roads are blocked and you have to locate the way around the roadblock.

Just like driving and finding roadblocks to get around, the writing world often has roadblocks and detours. Maybe you pitch an editor who requested your manuscript and you don't get a response. I've been working with an author who has a children's book and she has been promising to send it to me. It has never come. A few weeks ago when I saw this author in person, she asked me if I had received it. My conversation with her was the first I had known she had even finished it and tried to send it. No, I had not received it. She promised to resend it—and that still has not happened. We depend on things like email when sometimes even email breaks down and doesn't reach the intended editor.

From my years in publishing, I find every step of the process has pitfalls and potential breaks in communication. Editors don't respond to your magazine pitches or a program which you use often isn't working or someone promises to review your book and doesn't follow through. These types of roadblocks happen all the time.

How do you respond to a roadblock? Do you stop and say to yourself, “Guess no one wanted that idea.” “Or “it wasn't meant to be.”  Or do you persevere and look for another way to move around the roadblock?  The writers who succeed (and that measure of success is different for each of us)—find their way around the barriers.

Earlier this year, I wrote about listening to Lauren Graham's memoir, Talking As Fast As I Can. She sat next to best-selling author, James Patterson and ask him, “How do you do it?”

Patterson responded, “Keep going, keep going, keep going.” As writers, each of us get rejected. Our plans get interrupted and changed.  My encouragement is to continue looking and find the path forward. If you are struggling with an area, then create a new habit or new system to help with this area. Your goals and dreams as a writer are important.

The stories of persistent and perseverance in the face of challenges is often a theme in different biographies and how-to books that I've heard recently (check my list of books here). In Robert Greene's Mastery, he told the story of Henry Ford and his early failures and persistence to ultimately form the Ford Motor Corporation.

Admiral William H. McRaven told about his persistence in his Navy seal training in Make Your Bed. Historian David McCullough told about the early failures of Harry S. Truman in Truman. While he had no college education, Truman became the 33^rd  President of the United States. I learned valuable lessons from each of these successful people. Persistence and perseverance is an important quality for every writer.

Tell me in the comments below, what actions you take to continue and move forward with your writing.

Tweetable:

Hitting a barrier? Get ideas here how to keep moving forward.  (ClickToTweet)
 

Overcome Your Roadblocks

Some days feel like you are stopped at every turn. Your queries to magazines are rejected. You've crafted your proposal or manuscript and sent it to a number of literary agents at the same time. None of them are responding. You glance at the Amazon numbers for your books and they are in the millions (i.e. not selling at least on Amazon). Your twitter followers are not growing. The list of possible roadblocks to your writing life appears endless.

The critical difference between success and being in these types of stall is to persevere and find the way to overcome your roadblocks. Think about your current roadblocks. Are you stuck or are you looking for the path around that roadblock?

I've written about how I use a tool called Refollow where in a short amount of time I follow 800 new people every day. About once or twice a week, when I use this tool, I will get a message from Twitter telling me that I've followed the maximum number of people for that day and it will reset tomorrow. Maybe I've only followed 123 people of my planned 800. It looks like I'm blocked from following additional people.  Yet I've learned if I wait 45 minutes to an hour, then return to the tool again, it starts working and I follow the additional people. I have found a way to move forward even when blocked.

It's the same way with your writing. If you want to write for magazines, are you targeting the right audience for a publication? Are you crafting good articles with solid storytelling, a beginning, middle and an end? Do your articles have a single point or a takeaway? If not, there may be good reason why you are getting rejections from the editors. You will need to learn more or make different adjustments to get through these roadblocks. Maybe you need to join a critique group or form your own critique group to get this help.

Or maybe you are writing children's books and sending out your material and getting quickly rejected or hearing silence. It's another roadblock. While many people believe children's books are easy to write (they aren't), you need skills and background to pull off such a submission. Get this additional information and you will find your way around the roadblock.

If you aren't selling enough of your books, what actions can you take today to change this roadblock? Can you reach out to speak at another event? Can you create your own event? Can you begin to be active in an online forum? Pitch some podcasts for scheduling you as someone to interview and gain exposure to a new audience? There are dozens of ways around the roadblocks but it will not happen if you wait on someone else and don't take action.

The world is full of opportunity but you have to seize it. It will not happen if you sit around and wait for it to come to you. Look for the opportunities to overcome your roadblocks. 

Tweetable:
Hitting roadblocks with your writing? Here's how to overcome them. (Click to Tweet)

When Hitting a Roadblock, Experiment

For my social media efforts, I've written about using a tool called Refollow. Every day for the last several years, I've been increasing my followers using this tool. It takes me less than five minutes to follow 800 new followers.

It's significant that the people I'm following are not just anyone. They are followers in my target readers of publishing or writing. This targeting is a huge part (plus my continued valuable content in my tweets) as to why my followers continue to grow.

Sometimes when I use refollow, it will suddenly stop and I will get the message that I've reached the maximum followers which twitter allows and this will reset tomorrow.  Often in the past when I receive this rare message, I will close the window for refollow and use it again the next day.

I've learned through experimentation that if I wait for at least 30 minutes, I can return to refollow and select more people to follow and it will begin to work again. Just giving it this break from use, the tool will restart and I will be able to follow more people—so I can reach my selected limit of 800 new people a day.

Recently a reader wrote asking what to do because they had followed the maximum number of people which twitter allowed. My question in response: are these new people you have followed responding and following you back? If not, then you need to use a free tool like Manage Flitter to unfollow those people. Then you can replace the people you have unfollowed with new followers.  Manage Flitter is a valuable tool to remove people who are not responding. Then you can add new ones.

Some people wonder how I've written the volume of books or magazine articles or even these articles on The Writing Life (over 1200). The answer whether increasing your twitter followers, writing your next book or book proposal or magazine article, is simple: do it consistently every day. Many people want to write a bestseller or rocket to the top of some ranking yet they are not putting in this regular consistent effort.

I've been using Refollow for several years and I reap results from that effort all the time. Some people contact me about marketing their book or finding a literary agent or getting published or any number of other things. I faithfully respond to their questions, send them to valuable resources and help them. In response, they sign up for my email list, buy my products and books and publish their books with Morgan James or take my membership course on book proposals, receive these articles on the Writing Life, tell their friends about my work and much more.

The key point is to keep experimenting, trying new things and growing.  Each of us run into roadblocks—like Refollow hearing from twitter that I've followed the maximum people for today. Through experimenting, I found a way around the limit.

Each of us have challenges and roadblocks, do you accept the roadblock or find a creative solution around it?