Often you stop yourself in the middle of writing, shocked by what you've done yet again, some mistake or some wrong move. You may have done it multiple times by now, and you blame yourself for doing it yet again.

Don't.

When you see something in your writing that needs improvement, it's the first step to getting where you want to be. It's part of the learning process. Be patient.

Writing can stir up all kinds of memories and feelings, and sometimes despite all your efforts to stay on task (write your story according to how you want it to go), you get so emotional, your need to get closure with a certain person (whoever caused you grief in the past) is so strong, you can’t focus on your writing.

Usually, two things happen.

A very simple idea that can drag you out of indecision. Or hesitation. Or doubt.

When unsure how to proceed or what to write next, jump ahead into a scene or a part of the scene that excites you, and write out the best part of it. Just a paragraph or two. Then think about what comes next or what comes before. And then think of the stitching between those parts, like in sewing.

“Stitch” your words right after the exciting part as a transition to the next exciting part, or to the exciting part that happened right before. 

There will be people in your life who will try to tell you you’re wrong, who will frown upon your writing or flat-out tell you that you should stop. They could be well-meaning people, like your friends and family, who think they're doing you a favor by stopping you from a miserable existence and by persuading you to get a stable job and get paid. They could be strangers you've just met. And they could be anyone in between.

If all writers listened to those people, we’d have no books and no writers.

Persist.

The golden rule of repetition is three. It’s like ice cream. The first scoop you eat and delight in. The second scoop is still yummy, but somehow not so much. The third scoop all of a sudden makes you want to gag. Nothing changed, right? The ice cream is the same. What changed is your perception. Too much of a good thing can make you sick. 

Same with writing.