Bela Lampert

Optioned Screenwriter / Yoga Instructor

Who You Compare To

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Who You Compare To

When was the last time you declared yourself being stuck? When you had the feeling you weren’t moving forward at all and you started questioning things.

Things like, “Can I really do this?”, “Is writing really for me?”, “Why do I getting stuck all the time?”, … Things like that. The negative spiral.

But what does “moving forward” really mean?

It means you are getting closer to where you want to go.

Imagine you’re on a trip with your car. When you’re on the highway you make great progress towards your destination. Then, you get hungry.

You stop at a restaurant to eat something.

Would you declare yourself stuck at that point? Would you question whether you should do the trip or not? Whether you will reach that goal of yours?

Of course not, you’re just having a break to rest and get new energy.

And then you continue your trip.

Another example.

On this trip of yours, you get to a point where you don’t know how to move ahead. There are several roads to take, you’re not sure which one is it. Maybe you even take the wrong one and have to take a detour.

Again, would you declare yourself stuck at at that point?

No, of course not. The detour also gets you closer to the destination, just on another way.

Another example.

Still on your road trip, you check how far you’ve come every five seconds. Every five seconds you take a look at the mile counter. And you say, “It doesn’t move. We’re not getting ahead.”

Of course the mile counter doesn’t move if you check it every five seconds. Because the comparison window is too small. If you want to check your progress every five seconds you need to count a smaller measure than miles.

So, it looks as if there is no progress, but if you make the comparison window wider, you’ll see it. If you look back at the road, you’ll see the way you’ve come so far, how much you already covered.

So, how does this apply to writing?

1. Breaks and detours don’t mean you’re stuck, they’re just steps on your road to the destination

2. If you feel like you’re not moving ahead, make the comparison window bigger and you’ll see how fare you’ve already come

What also helps to get unstuck?

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