Episode 21 - The Sticking Point (or, why it took my three weeks to rewrite a single scene)

Have you ever been writing and suddenly, you CAN’T write anymore and you don’t understand why? Maybe you just hit a Sticking Point!

In this episode, I talk about this notion to better understand what’s happening when you can no longer write and what to do to keep on progressing, using as an example what I recently live while editing my second (agented) novel.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Support the show on Ko-Fi
• Get my FREE Essential Reading List for fiction writers
• HAD magazine
• Aeon Timeline
• Milanote
• Rachael Herron

Recorded on June 8th, 2026

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Lefty Obes Writing Podcast, where I share with vulnerability and positivity my journey towards making all of my writing dreams come true. I hope you learn with me as I go from the things that go well and what doesn't go so well. But mainly I wish it inspires you to pursue your own writing dreams. Now let's begin.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Hello and welcome to Lefty Obeys Writing Podcast. I'm so happy that you're here with me today. If you're new here, I never think about seeing this, but you could be completely new here when just trying out the podcast. So if it's the case, I'm a fiction writer, I've been writing for over 15 years. You can go back and listen to episode one. This is the episode where I share my entire writing journey, and then each episode after that, I do an update. So updating you on what happened in between the two episodes. So if you're curious about my journey in general, you can go and listen to all of that. But I am writing mainly horror, mainly speculative fiction, but sometimes I go other places, and also I'm represented by Amira Oliday at Serendipity Literary. I am seeking a traditional book deal with my amazing agent, and I'm working right now on my second novel. Second novel finished with my agent. I've written other novels before, but we submitted to editors my first novel. Again, if you go back and listen, you can be updated on all of that, but I'm working on my second novel right now. But if you're not new here, thank you so much for being here again for listening another week. I'm really glad that you're here. The topic of today's episode is the sticking point. And as I mentioned in last week's episode, this is sort of a concept I've come up with just to explain to myself what had been happening when it took me literally three weeks to rewrite one scene, and I just needed to understand what had happened to better be prepared for next time when it happens again, because I'm certain it will happen again. And I wanted to share it with you because I'm sure I'm not the only writer who feels like this. And if you can also put words on what you're feeling, on what's going on, and you can then know how to better approach it in your own writing. This is the goal of this podcast, is to help you with your own writing by sharing what I'm living with my writing. So basically, the sticking point, just to make it super short before I go into the update part of the episode, the sticking point is when you can no longer keep on writing, keep on doing what you were doing with your manuscript, and you don't know why it's happening, but it's really hard for you to keep drafting, to keep editing, to rewrite the scene, to plot your novel. So it can happen at any phase of writing a novel, but it's basically where you cannot keep on writing. And sometimes we'll call it writer's block, and I really need to make a whole episode on writer's block because there is so much to be said about it. But this is the case of the writer's block when it comes because there's something in your story that you don't know or that you got wrong. There is something that you need to figure out. This is the sticking point before you can keep on going. So I'm gonna go uh and dive super deep in that in the topic part of the episode, giving the example of what I lived in the past few weeks just to show you how it can come up in your writing. It can come up in many different ways, but I think showing you my example will be useful. So, this is for the topic part of the episode. Before I go into the update, I just wanted to remind you that there is a co-fi for the podcast. If you want to support the podcast, help me to cover the cost of the podcast. If you enjoy it, you can go over there. There is a few perks that you can have for being a member, or you can also do just uh buy me a coffee option. So just send a one-time donation to show your support to the podcast. The link will be in the show notes. Also, the video version of the podcast is right now available on Apple Podcasts. So if you want to see me talk about writing, sometimes I will show a few things, but it can be fun. I know I love to be able to put a face on the person I'm listening to. And also, I compiled my essential reading list for writers. So it's basically all the nonfiction books that had the most impact in my writing career: mindset books, there is craft books, and also inspirational books. So you can go on the link in the show notes to download this list completely free. There are links to all the books and also a small description of why that book had that much effect on my writing career. So if you're starting out or if you're confronted with some problems in your writing journey, there is definitely a book there who could be super useful to you. And basically, these are the books that I wish would fall from the sky every time someone said, I think I want to be a fiction writer. Like I would want those books to just appear in front of them because I really feel like together they have all the answers to most of the problem we will face as writers. So you can go over in the show notes again to find the link and to download this guide completely free. Now the update. So life is still crazy. It's being a bit more manageable because I'm sleeping a bit more. I dropped my meditation completely just to give myself more sleeping time. I'm trying to listen to myself more, take the evenings off. Really trying to do my best, but yeah, when life is crazy, I write less, and when I write less, I feel less good. So, but it's all temporary. School's almost over. I take the summer off with my kids. This is a family decision that we took this year, and I'm so grateful for it. And so it's almost over, but I really can't wait for it to be over. Like I'm really, really tired of being always running around. So that's coming up, but I still wanted to do an episode this week because I had my Monday and I wanted to talk to you. So here I am. I finished another scene in my novel, the horror novel. I'm editing right now. So because I figured out the sticking point, now I can progress. So it took me like I think one writing session this morning to be able to finish this scene. So it's going to be no two. Yeah, there was another, I think. I'm not, I it's been just a week and I can't remember what I did. But I think maybe two sessions of 25 minutes is all it took for me to finish the next scene. So, really figuring out the sticking point really helped me to keep on moving. I'm really happy about it and we keep on working. I just can't wait when I will be able to work more consistently on it because, like, once a week is really not enough for me personally to feel like I'm in the story and I'm staying in it. But you know what? We'll make it through. And also, you know, last week, if you haven't listened, I talked about the fact that I stopped submitting my old short stories because I could not get another rejection for the writers that I was 10 years ago. And this week there was there is this magazine, it's called HAD. I will put the link in the show notes because I really love what they do. I love their short story, their flash fiction. And they have this way of doing open submission that's really chaotic, but it's also like really fun and exciting to submit to this magazine because of it. So you can subscribe to their newsletter, you can follow them on Blue Sky, and they will just pop off some submission from time to time, and it will be either capped at 100 submissions, so you gotta submit in like one second, and all the places are filled, or like this week, what they did is they sent an email at like I think it was like 1:30, and the submission were open then and it closed at 2, something like that. It was a super short submission period that he never announced before. And when I got the notification that they were opening for submission, like I did before, I was just like, okay, I'm gonna just write something for Diamond real quick. So I took my break at my day job and I wrote them a flash fiction piece because it was so short, it allows me to get out of my head and to just write. And I decided to capture the feeling of the sensation of being life is so crazy, and I don't feel like I have time to write, but I need to write. I keep on waiting for an email that would disappoint me, etc., with my kids and everything. So basically, I just put it all in one story, 300 words, super short, and I submitted it to them, and that felt really cathartic in in a weird way to just write something so personal and just put it all on the page, and then I send it to two of my friends, my writer friends, and they are both so great. I mean, they always say good things about my writing, but their reaction was different than what I had before, and they were really into it like, oh my god, this is so relatable, this is so good, this is so raw, and it just felt good to feel like I had really captured something in a way that I could make a reader feel something. Anyway, just the feeling of writing this story and sharing them with my friend and having such a visceral reaction from them, it felt really, really good. And so I submitted it to this magazine, and also another thing that's particular with this magazine is that the editor always reads the submissions super fast, and you always get an answer, like within if it's not the same day that you submit, it will be two, maybe three days later, but he always reads them super quick. And I got a rejection again, and it was disappointing because I really felt like I had done something great with this story, and I still think I did something great, but at the same time, there is a question of taste when it comes to writing, and also because it was so raw, and I think this notion of being able to relate gives a different impact to the story, so it was just not a right fit for them at that moment, and that's perfectly okay. But of course, I was disappointed because this magazine is special to me, and it would be special to have a place in it. So I'm sure I'm going to keep on trying. Maybe I need to get a bit the weirder because they are this type of magazine that's a bit on the weirder side sometimes, but also really emotional at other times. Anyway, go check it out, you will see it's amazing what they do. So I was disappointed. I allowed myself to be disappointed without giving it the meaning that I'd done something wrong or that I was doing something wrong or that nothing was working, which is a place I sometimes go less often these days, but I do go there. But yesterday I was just like, okay, it's okay, it didn't work. I'm disappointed, I'm sad, but that's okay. And this morning, what I did is I reworked the story a bit because there was like two typos in it because I wrote it so fast. So I corrected the typos, changed two things that after consideration, I was like, this is really the right word, and I submitted it to for paying Flash Fiction Market, who responds fairly quickly because I don't want to have to wait three months before getting an answer when there are magazine dancer faster than that. So we'll see what happens with it, but it does feel far more possible that this could be published, so we'll see, we'll see, we'll see. But I'm just um I'm just happy. This moment of creation was really fun. This moment of connecting with my writer's friend through those words was fun too, and um, I just hope it finds a home. Uh, but we will see, but at least now I I submitted this, and it's for the writer that I am today, and not the one I was five years, ten years ago. So we'll see what happens with it, and that's all for my updates this week. Now for the topic part of the episode. So the sticking point. Like I said, it's when you are writing and you can no longer write. So this is a type of writer's blog. This is a writer's blog that I call a craft-related writer's blog. You could have also a writer's blog that is basically, and I will go deeper into this in another episode, but that could basically be related to something where it affects, it could affect your work too. Like maybe it will not, but sometime when you are living something really intense in your personal life, when your health isn't optimal, when you're under a lot of stress because of something happening in your life, either physically or mentally, it can get you to not be able to write anymore. And it's just a good self-care to allow yourself not to write. And it doesn't mean that every time you're going through a rough period in your life, either physically or mentally, that you will always not be able to write. Sometimes during those periods, writing can be even a salvation. I struggled with an inflammatory bowel disease for years, which I'm now cured because they remove my columns, not really a cure, but it got me to be healthy and I'm so grateful every single day for it. But when I was battling with this disease, I had ulcerative colosis, I think this is the name in English. There was a period where I was hospitalized because the disease was going so wrong. Where I basically decided, okay, you know what? I need to be hospitalized, but I'm not that bad mentally. Like it's just what it is. I just need to get cortisol introvinously. Sorry if it's not the perfect word to cure my disease. And I just needed to stay at the hospital for that, but I wasn't that bad. I was really, really bad, but it didn't feel totally like it. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna pretend that staying in the hospital is my basically my all-included writing retreat, and I told that to the people who were working there, and there was one uh guy, okay, I don't know the name in English. It's not a nurse, it's someone who's there to support the patients. So um, I don't know the name in English, it's uh préposé au bénéficiaire in French because I live in Quebec for those who don't know. So French is my main language. So he was really into it, and every night he came by because he he was doing the night shift, and he would always come in my room and say, Hey, how's the novel going? So that was super fun, and I say my novel saved me. It was my first novel that I got my agent with. Fourth novel that I ever wrote, but the first I finished, it was that novel that I wrote at the hospital, and that novel saved me at that moment because working so much on the novel allowed me to alleviate from the out situation that I was living in from being hospitalized, which is not fun ever. But another time when my disease got really bad, it was it was so bad physically. I look back at pictures of myself at this period, and I'm so thin, I'm so like pale, it's it's horrible. And it was so bad at that time that I couldn't write, like it was too bad for me to even write. So it depends. So I'm going deeper into writer's blog than I planned on chewing, but just to say that sometimes you cannot keep on writing because something is happening in your life that's preventing you from writing. This is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about if everything goes right, everything is perfect, you're working on your novel consistently, and then boom, you can no longer keep on going, and you're forcing and you're trying, but it's just not working. This is another type of writer's block. This is what I'm talking about, and you've just hit at that moment a sticking point. The sticking point will happen when there is something in your story that you have either figured out wrong, so you took a decision in your story, either a plot decision, a character backstory decision, a relationship between two characters, it could be anything. You took a decision and it's not the right one for the story that you're trying to tell, or it could be that you haven't figured out something. So maybe you haven't spent that much time thinking about the backstory of one of your characters or the setting or a plot point, or you're just fencing your way to the novel and you don't know the ending. At some point it can be working, but then when you can no longer write, that thing that you haven't figured out, it could be the thing that's preventing you from keeping on going. And again, there is so many things that you need to figure out and to know in a story that sometimes we either take a quick decision based on instinct, and nine times out of tens, it will be perfect for the story, but there is sometimes we will take a decision just wrong. Like, say, okay, those two characters are brothers and sisters. You just decided for it to be that, and down the line, you're like, Oh no, wait, no, no, no. After you hit the sticking point, after you figure it out, which I will go into, you are like, oh no, they really need to be the couple. Okay, so and and then sometimes when that happens, which's fun. I had that in my first ever novel that I wrote. I just wrote a first draft, I never finished it. It was a zombie story that I still love, and I still think I need to go back and finish it because it was really special. But I was writing two points of view, and at some point I was like, something something's not working. Again, I hit a sticking point. I couldn't no longer write my first draft, and I was like, what's going on? Something's wrong. And so I I tried to figure it out. I tried to work okay, but it's not working, it's been too long, I don't remember how I figured out. But at some point I was like, Oh my god, my main character is the dad of my other main character, that's her daughter, and I was like, Oh my god, okay, and then looking back when I went back to fix it, I realized that I didn't have that much change to do. I had a sentence to have there, a sentence to remove there, but in lol make a lot of sense for them to be related this way, but I just hadn't figured it out before and where my story was going, I really needed them. I needed to be conscious of this fact. It was like it was unconscious all the way that they were daughter and father, but when I arrived at a certain point, I needed to be conscious of this because it had too much implication in the rest of the story. So this could be an example of a sticking point. For example, in my current situation, when I started writing my book, I had my main character, and as I was writing the first draft, I realized that I needed a second POV. And I just went with it. I'm mainly pensing my first draft, so I was like, okay, second POV, let's go for it. So I just had this character who just emerged and puffed off, and I wrote the entire book with that second character. But because she emerged from the first draft, I hadn't taken that much time to figure out what was her backstory, a relationship with the father. My book is a hunted house, so the house is super important. It's as much important as a character. I hadn't figured out the relationship between my main character in the house, which is so important. I hadn't taken the time to figure out all of this, but I still felt like I knew her, like I knew where she was coming from. So it was like, okay, it's not that bad. So I kept on working, I wrote an entire first draft, and I started editing, and then the first scene where we see her, I couldn't edit it. I couldn't rewrite it, I couldn't see the structure with the story grid beats into it. And I was like, okay, I I I hit the sticking point, and I was like, okay, it must be just the scene. Let me keep on writing. This is like, do not do, do not keep on writing when you hit a sticking point. The fact that you hit a sticking point, it's your brain's way of telling you, no, no, no, you need to fix this or find this out. Like, there is something that you need to know and to change before you keep on going. But at first, I completely ignored it, and then I moved on to the second scene with this character. Again, I could not do it, I could not rewrite it, I could not figure out the story grid beats. It was just not working. So again, I put a little different Icon and I moved on to the next scene. The next scene was for my first POV character, so that went well. And then when I had the third scene from my second POV character, I hit the sticking point super hard again, and then I could no longer avoid the sticking point. I had no words for it at that point. Like that's why I love to put words on things. Because if I had just had that concept in my mind of the sticking point, I would have stopped sooner instead of just trying to keep on working my way, even though it really wasn't working. So when I had that third scene and I was like, okay, I'm it thing a sticking point, I took a step back and I was like, okay, I need to figure out what's going on with this character. And one thing that had never been clear to me was our job. So I was like, okay, I need to first figure out our job. But the job that someone does is influenced by the person that they are, by their aspiration, their taste, what they like to do, and their backstory and their relationship with the people around them. So figuring out our job actually made me had to look into so many things that I hadn't looked about this character. So I looked at all of that. I journaled, I thought about it, and then for those who are looking at the video, I'm holding my copy of Save the Cat Writes a Novel. I went into, and that's something amazing. If you're having trouble with your characters, I really recommend you do this little journaling exercise from Save the Cats Write a Novel, and it's about the hero. And so I'm just going to find out. So it's at page, if you have a copy, the chapter starts at page 9, but the point that really was necessary for me to journal on and to figure out was on page 10 and 11 when they talk about a problem, a want, and a need. So the three things that your character needs to have, they talk about the flawed hero and also the life's problem that this hero has. And there's the shard of glass, too. So I had my shard of glass, but I did not have what this shard of glass created as a problem in the life of my character. So this was really what was going on. And then when I figured it, what I realized was that this character was flawed in a way that because of her shard of glass, which I'm not going to go into because it this could be a bit spoiler relief for the novel, which I don't want to do. But basically, this character at the beginning of the novel pretty much lives for other people, and the main people in her life that she has a relationship with is her parents, so she lives for her parents. So then I was like, okay, it would just make sense that she works for her father's business because she never allowed herself to have her own dreams, her own desire. Her father needed someone to work for his company, and his daughter just took the spot. So I figured that out, and then by figuring this out, I figured out the setting of my first scene, and then I could go into it. But because I had like a father, I needed to figure out also their relationship with one another more deeply, be more intentional about what was their relationship like. And then it got me in a deeper hole about her father. I was like, okay, but what his is problem is need is shard of glass, what's the flaw he's like dealing with on a daily basis? So I went deep down on that also that road, and then both of them their relationship with the house, how it manifested into their lives, what was the presence of the house in their life at the beginning of the story. So it got me to go to all of those places, and when I say go to those places, mainly it was I always have a notebook for each of my projects, and I have also a timeline that I have in Heon timeline, and now I'm starting to use Mila notes to just keep all my notes about the novel because yes, the journal helps me, but it's more a brainstorming tool that's something I will refer back to because it's so all over the place that I never refer back to it. So when I need to make a decision about something and then I know I will have to refer back to it, it's in the Melanote now. I started this and I'm really liking it. So we'll link to all of this in the show notes, of course, if you want to go check out those things. But I was working on my journal, I was working in Melanote, I was working in Eon timeline, figuring out all of those things to really understand my character and the relationship with her father and the relationship with the house. And it's through all of that that finally I could move past my sticking point because I now I'd figure out all those things. So I could finish the scene, and then the next scene was also a scene from this character's POV. And when I was at that scene, boom, I just I I it was super easy for me to rewrite that scene and do the story grid beats because I had figured out what was sticking before, I unstuck it. That must not be the word, but anyway, I'm sure you understand. So I managed to remove the sticking point, and now it allows me to just progress smoothly down the path of editing the novel. So when you reach a sticking point, try to figure out okay, what's the thing? Where does it come from? So see, okay, is it something I don't know that I need to know? Like with the the the job of my main character, I did not think it was important for me to know what was her job because she's never at her job inside the story, so it's like it doesn't really matter what she does for a living, but it actually does. Of course, you need to know those things on your character is super important. So either the thing you don't know or a decision that you took before, and that it's not the right one, and those can be more tricky because you will have like when you okay, I know everything, but something's not working, you will have to go and see, okay, what's not working? What am I trying to do that doesn't want to be done? And then it's about journaling, taking walks, and thinking about it to see okay, what's the thing that's not working? And then if you see, okay, it's the relationship, I don't think they should be brothers and sisters, for example. And then, okay, what are they supposed to be? What will make the story stronger? Because this is always at the end of the day, the goal of writing a novel and editing. It's what will make the novel stronger, what will put me closer to the novel I'm trying to write and I want to write. So try it all around, think about it, brainstorm it. Sometimes I like to do this, is just I'm gonna figure out all the things that could happen, even like the things that are completely crazy. I'm just going to try it, figure it out. Is it a plot point that you did before? I don't know. Um, uh, you kill the character, and it was a wrong decision. Like this character really needs to keep on being alive for your novel to work. So you cannot move forward and keep on writing because you're always hitting the sticking point of this character is dead and shouldn't be dead. So then what's the goal? It's just for you to realize, oh my god, I need to unkill that character. And then once you're move past that, just tiny embedded advice inside that advice episode about craft. This is something I got actually from Rachel Aaron, and this is such, such, such a good advice. When you're drafting a novel, either it's your first draft or you're rewriting, when you make a change like that. For example, I killed that character and it should still be alive at this point. Don't go back necessarily to, again, it's trial and error, but I found that so helpful. Don't go back and fix it before you keep on going. Keep on writing your novel at that point in the story as if the character had been alive all along. Just just pretend that you've gone back and you've made the change and then just continue, and then you'll go back and fix it. And that works beautifully because, like I said, the times that had happened for me that I needed to change something kind of big, like my characters being father and daughter, that's what I did. I kept on drafting the novel as if they had been related since the beginning. And when I went back to edit it, I realized that there wasn't that much to be changed actually, because it's like a part of me always knew, but consciously I didn't. So just a little advice that you can try to. If you're at a sticking point and you need to change something, kind of major about what happened before, just try keep on writing like you did it, like you already did the edits, and you will see. Usually it's not a big change as you think, as you may think. And after you figured out your sticking point, you've either changed the thing that needed to be changed or you figured out the thing that you hadn't figured out, you will see that you will be smooth sailing again in your writing or editing. And it's really fun when you finally pass that sticking point. So I hope that this has been helpful to you. That also putting words like this notion of sticking point could help you to better identify what's going on when you're trying to write and you just can no longer keep on writing. I hope it will be as helpful to you as it has been helpful to me. If you know a writer friend who's also struggling to keep on writing their manuscript, just send them this episode or you can share it also on social media. If you do, don't forget to tag me. I'm at Lefty Obey on Instagram and TikTok. A reminder to go and support on Ko Fi if you find the episode helpful today. And finally, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. It really helps other people to discover it and to benefit from it. Again, I'm so happy that you've been here this week, and I'll see you next week. So, in the meantime, I'm wishing you a lovely week of writing.