I Can't...Right?

                                     
I think every novel writer goes through it. It's a time when you just can't write...you don't have nearly 2% as much inspiration and hope and excitement as you did before. You keep putting your writing off; you write less often; your writing quality goes down.

And that's okay. Give yourself a break.
But not forever.

When I was in this lull of writing, I had a conversation with a friend, who was reading my developing novel. And she didn't tell me how much she liked it, or even how to improve it. She told me what it was about. She explained to me the plot, the characters, the style of writing, what kind of book it was.

It wasn't like she was talking to me, the author of the book. It was like she was talking to someone who had never read the book before, let alone wrote it.

And she explained the book to me in a way I'd never thought of the book before. All of a sudden, it was a completely different book, it was a completely different manuscript, it was a completely different project. It wasn't my book, it was someone else's book. And now it was my opportunity to work on it.

And I was excited to start something new. You know why? I had a head start: what I'd already written.

(this pictures is by INeedChemicalX on DeviantArt)