A friend says this has happened to her more than once. Yep, I’ve been there, too. I have two “practice novels” in a box under the bed. Here’s what happened to me, in part: Sometimes when I’m writing, a character will say or do something that takes the story in a different direction than I’d planned. That might be good, but not always. It might really, subconsciously, reflect a theme from movie I saw last night, or a book I’m reading. (I can be hopelessly derivative). You might let this go and see where it takes you, but sometimes you find yourself writing and not caring. A million other things seem more interesting. You want to give up.

Related: Have you ever told somebody about your story and had them say, “Hey, you know what you could do? Once your main character gets to Denver, she could…” and then they’re off to the races writing your story for you. I really hate when that happens. It just deflates my balloon, and I think I know why:

Writing is entrepreneurial. We are, whether we know it or not, solo businesspeople. When somebody comes along and tells us what we should write, it changes our relationship to our business. Now instead of being the boss, we feel like an employee. We’ve received an assignment. It might be exciting at first to follow that new leader, but then we run out of gas and find ourselves sitting in front of a stinking pile of paper, and it isn’t our own anymore.

If either of the above happen to you, try asking yourself, “What was I originally trying to say? What was it about my original idea that fired me up?” If you can find that ember again and fan it, you might be able to get back on track. (and save the digression piece for a later short story or twist).