Recent Writing Frustrations

As most of you know, I like to work on a lot of projects at once. And while I normally have seven or eight novels going at a time (on average) I usually have two that I focus on. Right now I'm working on editing a chapter book titled The Adventure That Started With Nuts about a talking squirrel and his best friend, who's a talking chipmunk. I'm also working on a YA contemporary, Beneath the Moon and Stars.

But lately, I've been feeling stuck. I've had a chronic case of writer's block whenever I sit down to work on BTMAS, and honestly, I'm bored by edits for my squirrel story. But while that's all extremely frustrating, the result of this writer's block/boredom is good material for a blog post. ;)

When I'm stuck, you can find me ranting to my BFF via text or e-mail chat about how my characters won't cooperate. For example, here's a snippet of our latest conversation:

Me: Blah. Blah blah blah blah blah. I'm so stuck with my story. :P I seriously went on a two page tangent about makeup because I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO.

Anything inspiring? :P I'll take quotes, pictures, anything. (Or distractions? Funny sibling stories? What are you reading right now?)

Her:

Me: LOL XD

Lane's stuck at his mother's stupid New Year's Eve party and REFUSES TO MOVE.

I hate it when my characters refuse to cooperate. -_-

And even worse, the thing that's going to happen RIGHT AFTER this party is so exciting!!! :P

Her: Right after? Oh man, you gotta get him to move.

Me: XD I'm trying.

I then sent her some pictures showing everything I'd done to get this character (Lane) to move, none of which were working:

Banging my head against the keyboard

Yelling at my characters

Yelling at my characters some more

When I'm bored, you can find me putting off the next chapter, the next scene, in the hopes that a grand idea will just pop into my head without trying. I often use the, "waiting for inspiration to strike" excuse so I don't feel guilty about playing video games, checking my e-mail/Twitter, or watching the next episode of "Sherlock."

With The Adventure That Started With Nuts, I sat down, fully intending to get at least three chapters edited, and ended up getting sidetracked:

So that's why I've been up to these past few days.

What are some of your biggest writing frustrations? Leave a comment! (And don't forget to check out the giveaway below!)