Currently Empty: $0.00
the avoidance is sometimes geographical
You keep rewriting Chapter One because Chapter Twelve scares you.
Editors call this displacement. I call it geographical avoidance. You polish the safe pages so you don't have to write the unsafe ones. The fix isn't more revision; it's an honest map of your manuscript that tells you where you're really stuck. We build the avoidance map together in this piece, and you'll be staring at the actual problem chapter inside ten minutes. Sorry in advance. The good news: the avoided chapter is almost always the most interesting one. It's avoided for a reason — usually that it's where the book actually wants to go. Going there is the fix.
The avoidance map · how to read it
| Symptom | Diagnosis |
|---|---|
| Same opening rewritten 7+ times | Avoiding the inciting incident |
| Polishing scenes 3-5 endlessly | Avoiding scene 8 |
| Endless backstory rewrites | Avoiding the present-day stakes |
| Tweaking dialogue tags | Avoiding the emotional core scene |
| Rearranging chapters | Avoiding the chapter you don't know how to write |
Build your avoidance map in ten minutes
- List your chapters in order.
- Mark each with the number of revision passes it's gotten.
- Circle the one with zero passes. That's the avoided chapter.
- Write the avoided chapter in worst-version form, today.
- Notice how the rest of the book moves once it's drafted.
The chapter you can't bring yourself to write is the one your book is about. Write it badly today. Revise it brilliantly later.
— L.A. Walton, The Book Maven
From the Maven Catalog
- Master Course — Manuscript Mapping
- eBook — The Avoidance Map
- Toolkit — Revision Heat-Map Toolkit
- Planner — Revision Pass Planner
Build the map. Find the avoided chapter. Draft it badly. The rest of the book will rearrange itself around it. That's how it works every time.