Immediate Fiction (39 page)

that I'm no good, that I don't have it? Am I blocked? Or has something in the story got me stumped—something I might or might not be aware of?"

The first step is to define the problem. Then go to the course. It's all there. But it won't help you if you don't use it. Find the place in the course that addresses the issue that's got you stumped. If you're blocked, go to chapter 15, on blocking and unblocking. If it's story that's got you stumped or blocked, go to chapter 8, on rewriting. Follow it step-by-step and do what it tells you. These are your tools. They will lead you back into the drama and energy of your story and yourself.

For every writing problem there's a simple solution. The problem may not feel simple, but your job is to make it simple. You do that not by getting sucked into some extreme emotional judgment of your story or your ability or your character, but instead by stepping back, defining exactly what's in your way, and then finding the solution in the course. Writing can be a lonely, isolating experience. But you're not in this alone. The course is your partner. Keep in touch with it. It's important to keep in touch with the course in two ways: first, by going to it when you're in trouble, but also by going to it on a regular basis. It's part of your training. All the while you're writing or doing your five minutes a day, you need to be reading the course. Two pages every day if possible, one page or half a page if that's all you can do. Don't pressure yourself. Just go to it daily and let it sink in. Keep doing that until you've gone through it at least four times—particularly chapters 4 through 10 and chapter 14. Different things will impress you at different times as you develop. It won't all register at once. Keeping in touch in this way is your ongoing training, your way of getting the support and coaching you need.

A lot, if not all, of this is new. The ideas are new, and what I'm asking you to do is new. Changing your behavior is never comfortable. It takes time to get used to it and to be able to use the tools effectively. But you can do it, and it will work. You have what it takes already. It's in you. You just have to learn how to use it. That's the craft. If you stick with it, eventually it will become a part of you. You will internalize it, and it will start to happen for you. It will be not so much that you do it, but that it does you. When that happens, you will find it's a different and much more exciting game. Believe me, it's worth working for.