My problem is that when I have something finished, and I send it to my beta readers, I am unable to write anything else. I am completely stuck while I wait for a response. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to break out of this funk?
I only work on one story at a time, so not writing while waiting on beta feedback is just part of my normal process. I don't consider it being stuck, it's more of a break for me.
I try to write some short stories because even if they suck, they give me immediate practice revising words, which I'm going to have to do soon. train train train
I was listening to an author on the radio today and he said he was never stuck because he only wrote when he had something to write about. I'm currently waiting for my betas and I do have something to work on, but if I didn't, I would would use this time to catch up on all the reading I want to do. We learn to write by reading, right? So, no time wasted.
Taking a break from now and then is very healthy. You can use that idle time for gathering new experiences, reordering some thoughts, find new perspectives, and such. The mind needs a distraction from highly focused activities, such as writing. Now, if you feel the need of advancing into a plot, or have a timeline to deliver, it could be a matter of time management rather than being stuck. I also use to pause in middle of a beta reading, mostly to check my own mistakes or embellish some paragraphs, so when the beta reading comes, I can integrate the new ideas in consequence for the next version. If not in the mood for formal writing, you can always draft plots for the future.
Write fanfiction, it's fun, gets the ideas going with much less effort. Then you can always change it (see Twilight) to be a standalone, if you want, or you can just use it as an exercise or practice of the craft.
This is a good idea. You earned a break after all, but if you want to keep the creative juices flowing, do something with low pressure. Fanfiction, or find one of the bazillion flash fiction prompts on the net and go with that.
Nope, I'm usually writing the next book while people are beta'ing the previous. But I do become paralysed sometimes when I'm waiting for publishers to get back to me. I start to work on the new manuscript and all I can think about is what's happening with the old one. It's getting less and less common as time goes on and waiting for publishers is no longer an exciting novelty, so I'd say you just need to accept this is how it is for you.
I get restless and feel like I'm wasting time, which then makes me resentful of my Beta readers and how long their taking. Not as healthy as your approach.
