In an essay for Lit Hub, George Saunders talks about that awkward moment when you’re not sure what happens next in your story. Some of us get stuck there and others plow through, putting in some placeholder action that lets us avoid a blank spot.
“An avoidance moment isn’t an actual thing—it’s just a way of thinking about those moments in a story that are somehow not there yet, that are not quite right; those places where the language gets imprecise, or the logic is somehow off, or the author inexplicably inserts a leap forward or backward in time, or a spaceship comes down out of nowhere,” Saunders explains.
In the workshop environment, this is where other writers tend to pounce. In an otherwise strong story, it’s easy to spot a moment were the writer wasn’t sure what to do next. “The problem with this approach is that it fails to see a beautiful story for what it really is: the culmination of a series of revisions,” Saunders says. “That is: a good story occurs in waves.”
Instead of fretting about your blank spots, Saunders recommends embracing them for what they are: one point along the long-ish journey it will take to finish your story. “So: a rough patch in a story is not an error or a defect or evidence of our lack of talent or proof that we are imposters, missing some essential frequency being broadcast from Story Central,” Saunders writes. “It’s an indicator that our heroic, brilliant subconscious is working out a problem as it stumbles towards beauty, and is asking for our help, and what it needs for us to do, just now, is have faith. And wait.”
According to Saunders, there are positives in these sticking points: solve the first one and the solution to the next suggests itself. Keep going, and your possibilities get narrower until your story choices are inevitable.
“Instead of the story being this messed-up thing I erroneously produced, because I don’t know how to do it right—instead of it existing as a sort of Proof of Failure, with me as Chief Failer—I see myself as a loyal, helpful friend to that guy over there, who is my talent, and I have faith in him, although he sometimes gets a little confused,” Saunders says. “And I’m trying to help him to do his best.”
