Stumped? Stumped.

Written by Mara Larkin  

I always imagined myself in the same place as J.K Rowling, surrounded by paparazzi and given more attention than a chocolate bar would get from a fat kid. I seriously thought one of my ideas, as simple as they were just as Harry Potter was, would bloom into a magnificent story, and would be viewed by the millions. I would be praised, and labeled as the Author of the generation.
   But as I write, I have come to realize something. Maybe Harry Potter wasn't as simple as I see it to be. Maybe even J.K Rowling thought she could do better with it. As I sit at my writing station, and type words that I assume would lead to the story, I just stop. I can never finish them, and I always marvel as to how Rowling ever managed to finish her wonderful series.
I always get this marvellous idea, and I say to myself, "Oh, this is a grand idea. This could definitely get published one day." I've been working on that story for 7 years now. I got the idea when I was 11, and I've never let go of it. I see the potential it has! I've been in full editing mode that whole length of time, but you know what, I still don't deem it ready.
   There are scenes that just stop, as I move on to the next idea. There are characters that don't develop enough for me, so I change them up. There are times I think, "Is this a novel or a short story?" and I could never answer that question. I try my best with grammar, and yet sometimes what I've written just doesn't flow.
   I'm completely stumped on it, and I've been trying to climb over that wall for 7 years now, and I can't. But I'm not giving up because somewhere deep inside me I know that one day this story will either get printed by someone else who was able to get it done before me, or rather never get printed at all. And if I don't even try for the fame Rowling has now, how could I ever presume to get it?
When you reach that wall, I suggest to go back to the beginning. Every time I reach mine, I return to the beginning, run at it, and it just so happens I can jump over. I start at the beginning of my story, and I read through it, I re-edit certain scenes, I re-write complete others, I create something new, I completely destroy something that's been there since day one. And then about 6 months later, (laugh all you want) I come back to that wall, and because I have a story that flows more, I am swept right over that wall of "Stump" and I continue on my way until I reach the next wall. Though maybe my method of climbing that wall is the reason it's taken me 7 years to complete this idea I have. But though it takes me a while, I persevere.
   Sometimes I'm stuck on that wall for weeks though, not even willing to climb over it. And then I remember it's my world I created, anything could happen. I sometimes just leave a huge space in between, write another scene with a different idea, or maybe write a train of thought, and then I work on how I could connect those two. Sometimes, it's as a simple as the linking sentence being: "Chapter 8". Sometimes it's as easy as that.