Dusty Stories: A Teen Author’s Insight

Recently, I picked up a novel I haven't touched in near six months. I never meant to drop the project this long, especially considering it's four chapters to the end, but what can I say, senior year hits hard.

Now I'm dealing with the weird In-between place that happens when you've created something all on your own, a whole universe, a city, living breathing people, and their only home is your head. What happens when you let them cease for a while? How do you pick up where you left off? Can you remember the details of the world, of daily life in it, your characters' hopes, dreams, and fears? Can you remember how they would react, or are you creating a whole new version of them based on a dusty photograph and the holes they left in your memory? 

Senior year has hit me hard mentally, as it does for many people. The existential dread fueled by a realization that my childhood is ending and that college and adulthood are lurking around the corner had put my creative brain to rest. Now though, spring break is here, spring is here, I've signed up for college classes, and have come to the realization that I don't want to work a menial desk job for the rest of my life and I actually have to put in the work to make sure that happens. So, goodbye crippling feeling of oncoming responsibilities, I have a story to write!

Picking up where you left off is easier said than done, you think you know what you were working on but when you’ve left a project be for as long as I have there tends to be gaps of information, specifically surrounding the details of the project. I know other’s have this same problem, so here’s what I’ve done to help myself through it and get back on track.

I plot pretty heavily before I start to write, so for me the first step is looking over and reading the notecards for the chapters I have remaining to write, just so I know exactly what I had been planning for the story and where I need to end up.

My next step is to skim through the last few chapters I had written previously, just as a recap to myself. This doesn’t have to be sitting down and fully reading and analyzing the chapters, but it’s a reminder of small details that otherwise may have escaped my memory.

Another point I have to force myself to think about is trying to get back into that groove without relapsing into a more comfortable routine like scrolling through my phone after dinner instead of writing. Writing coach Jenna Avery touches on this here, “And, even though those quick hits feel good in the moment, they don’t last, and they don’t solve or help the overall Not Writing Discomfort. That way lies more of the same. Paying attention helps you slow down your choice making. Yes, you’ll have some setbacks, but the key is how you’re handling writing most of the time.” (Avery)

Avery also touches on the matter of doing the opposite, pushing yourself as hard you can to brute force your way back into writing. In my case this mostly ends up in worse writers block, this is what Avery has to say, “Although it’s tempting to pour as much time as possible into writing (and sometimes we have to meet deadlines so we might do a short-term push), overall the goal is to work in a way that allows you to keep writing consistently over the long term.” (Avery)

Works Cited

Avery, Jenna. “How Do I Pick up the Pieces with Writing after Burning Out?” Script Magazine, 20 Dec. 2024, scriptmag.com/ask-the-coach/how-do-i-pick-up-the-pieces-with-writing-after-burning-out. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.

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