What to do when you’re slumping or stuck
Have you ever had a great idea for a story, only to get stuck or lose interest when you sit down to write it? Don’t worry – that happens to all writers! In this lesson, you’ll discover some strategies for working through creative tough times, and tips for staying motivated with your story writing.
Video Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:23 Meet the creators
01:07 Overcome writing roadblocks
02:39 How to stay excited about your story
04:27 How not to get overwhelmed with writing
05:23 Final words of advice
06:13 Here’s what we’ve learned
Learning Intentions
1. Thinking about ways to overcome writing obstacles, and how to find solutions to finish creative projects.
2. Learning about experimenting with ideas and trying alternate ways to develop a story.
3. Exploring the importance of editing and redrafting.
SUCCESS CRITERIA:
1. Demonstrated different ways of plotting a story.
2. Identified story problems and demonstrated some ways to solve these problems.
3. Demonstrated improvement in story writing by editing work and completing a second draft.
Discussion Questions
- Think about Tamala’s first question: ‘Have you ever been excited by a story idea, only to lose interest when you try and write it?’ Has this ever happened to you? Why do you think you lost interest in your story?
- What do you usually do if you’re working on something and you get stuck? How do you try and ‘unstick’ yourself?
- Do you find it easy or challenging to come up with stories? What do you find are the easy parts and the harder parts of inventing stories?
- Mandy and Scott mention that ALL writers have times when they find writing difficult, and Mandy gives a few reasons why her stories might get stuck.
- Do you remember the reasons she gave? (Because something is missing, or there is too much going on and something needs to be taken out, or the story
needs to go in a different direction, or she needs to do more research and planning). - What are some of the reasons YOUR stories have become stuck?
- Scott says that everyone has 'bad days' when they’re writing, and that your story has to be a ‘chipped, lumpy thing’ while you are working on it.
- What do you think Scott means by a ‘chipped, lumpy’ story?
- Why do you think it’s important to keep that in mind as you are writing a first draft of your story?
- Both Mandy and Scott talk about sometimes feeling overwhelmed by their story; they mention that breaking things down and working on one small part of the story at a time can make it more manageable. What are some ways you could break your work down into parts? (e.g. you could work on a chapter or single scene at a time, you could give yourself a set amount of time to write per day, you could try and create a story plan and tick bits off as you go, etc).
- Scott says that sometimes losing bits of your story is what needs to happen to get things moving again. Why do you think editing a story could help you when you’re stuck?
Curriculum Links
Australian Curriculum V9.0 Links
ENGLISH Year 5-6
Language:
● Text structure and organisation: AC9E5LA03, AC9E6LA03, AC9E5LA04, AC9E6LA04
Literature:
● Engaging with and responding to literature: AC9E5LE02, AC9E6LE02
● Creating literature: AC9E5LE05, AC9E6LE05
Literacy:
● Analysing, interpreting and evaluating: AC9E5LY05, AC9E6Y05
● Creating texts: AC9E5LY06, AC9E6LY06
GENERAL CAPABILITIES
LITERACY
Writing
● Creating texts: Level 7-8
PERSONAL AND SOCIAL CAPABILITY
Self-management
● Perseverance and adaptability: Level 3
CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING
Reflecting
● Transfer knowledge: Level 3
CREATORS
Resources
