One of the keys to success as a writer is to spread your fiction writing wings by writing a variety of pieces. I mention this, because as an editor I’ve encountered numerous writers with one novel under their belt, and nothing more. Another form of being stuck. They’ve woken up each day and worked on that novel and reworked it, then revised it yet again—Groundhog Day revisited—but somehow it’s simply not ready for publication.

At that point, my advice: it’s best to move on. Don’t let one novel or memoir become your writing albatross.

I realize it may be difficult to let go of the dream of getting that story published after you’ve put so much effort into it. But think of it as your writing primer, and now that you’ve learned so much about plot, character development, setting, point-of-view, and dialogue, you’re ready to tackle your next novel or short story. Perhaps you’ll switch to memoir?

For those of you struggling with this attachment, I can commiserate because for years I worked on a novel dear to my heart. It was semi-autobiographical, as many first novels are. And that novel received both the James Jones First Novel Fellowship and an Artist in Literature fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Seems logical that it should have been published, but after a number of rejections, I decided to take the advice of a veteran editor: “Put it on your shelf and move on to the next one.”

I did. It was my next novel, Saving Phoebe Murrow, that got published and recently won the 2016 New Apple Award in general fiction. The idea for this story came from a newspaper article about a girl who was cyberbullied and then committed suicide. It brought me up short. Almost immediately I knew that I wanted to write a story about cyberbullying and social media.

If you’re lacking inspiration, ask yourself what turns you on, what do you love? I recommend reading voraciously—papers, magazines, and books; watch movies, the news, and talk shows; take a trip to a place you’ve never been; keep your eyes and ears open to the world around you; observe people. Imagine their lives. Jot down notes, stray lines as they arrive, keep a story concept file.

Soon you’ll get an idea for a new book, I promise.