Can't move on

No, you're not just stuck. You're worried, and anxious, and that's spilling over and making you listen too much to your own Inner Editor who, fuelled by all your worry and anxiety, is yelling in your ear that you can't write, you've done it all wrong, and you are a hopeless loser.

Your Inner Editor is completely and absolutely wrong, but she's being so noisy you can't see past her.

The best way I've found to silence my own Inner Editor is to focus on self compassion. Sounds ridiculous, but it does work. Look around online for some self compassion meditations. There are loads you can download for free, loads more on YouTube. Spend a few days doing a couple of ten minute self compassion meditations a day, and you'll be amazed how much better you feel, and how much more ready for work you are.

Good luck!

If you self published it why can't you take it down? Or just edit it now and then resubmit it when your done then you can still leave it up. Hopefully someone with experience can answer your question.

lizo27 said:

I think you're 100% right about this being an anxiety thing. I can't shake the thought that I've irretrievably ruined my series by publishing that last book. And I'm stuck because I can't abandon my series for something else without feeling guilty but I also feel like it isn't worth continuing the series because it's ruined now. I haven't tried applying self-compassion to my writing but I'll try it.

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I took the liberty of looking your book up on Amazon. Your reviews aren't bad, you know - many of them are very good. I'm sure you're hypersensitive to the less-than-favorable ones, but a lot of people have really enjoyed the book (and no book ever written escapes reviews unscathed).

I know it's hard, but my advice would be to find a way to embrace this book for itself, and love it, if you can. (Some of your readers have loved it!) Stop chewing on it and assuming you've somehow spoiled everything, and see if you can move forward, even just a little bit at a time.

The suggestions that have been offered all are great. All I would add is to take a break from writing anything. It seems like you've been trying to force creativity. Try reading a book in a genre different than what you usually write. Let your head clear and view a different perspective of story telling. I try to remember to treat writing like finger painting- keep it messy, keep it fun, don't decide what you have until it's done, and remember to wash up before eating. Hope everything works out for you...be happy.

Yeah, I'm with Crooks. Take a break, indulge in something you like to do. Whenever I feel like my life is falling apart, I take a step back from basically everything and watch my favorite series, Ghost Whisperer. For writing, I normally look over older pieces of work and reword them, tweak at them a bit, trying my hand at submitting for magazines again until I feel ready to do things again. I might read a little too, but that's not my go to.

Woo! I'm glad you're feeling better. I think your gut was telling you something, and from my own experience, you should always listen to the niggle. My only advice would be not to pay attention to what readers say about the rewritten version. You had to do this for your own creative satisfaction, so if this process frees you up for the next book then operation: success.

I've also rushed projects in order to publish quickly, so I feel you there! Everybody works at different speeds. (Or so I keep reminding myself )