The most common refrain from those of us who are grappling with sluggish stories and dwindling mojo is that we’re just feeling Blah. Our stories are Blah, our writing is Blah. We’ve spent the last two weeks mining our creative depths, and many of us have emerged with too few diamonds and way too many lumps of coal.

Trust the process. If you’re doubting yourself or your story, just keep moving forward. Every year, authors who press on to 50K are treated to the electric moment when the tangle of plots and people we dropped into the first half of our books end up forming unexpected connections. Themes develop. Arcs emerge. Things crackle, then hum, and, at the very end of the month, enough circuits connect that the whole story lights up with a bookish glow.