I was so excited when I finished my first draft. I was riding high, king of the world, on cloud nine, and whatever other tired cliches you want to add in. I was feeling AWESOME, like I could accomplish anything.

But like that old book says, “Pride goeth before the fall.” And boy have I fallen.

Doubts are nothing new to an author. But I have been plagued with high-quality, specific doubts for weeks now. I am struggling – really, really struggling – with a key aspect of my manuscript. The main question bouncing around in my head day and night is: Who cares? Or rather, “Why do they care?”

The “who” is the reader – that amorphous, faceless person every author imagines reading his/her/their work. There they are, curled up under a blanket, Taylor Swift’s Folklore playing softly in the background, eagerly devouring my book as the rain softly falls outside. Why does that person care about my protagonist?

At this point, I don’t have an answer. I know why I care. Yet I have not done enough to make the reader really really care about the protagonist. Sure, there is action and adventure. There are obstacles and setbacks and triumphs and relationships with other characters.

But is there enough about the protagonist to keep the reader up at night pondering what they will do next? Will the reader feel their pain, hope their hopes, and identify with their struggles?

So here I am, stalled out. I know what needs to happen. I know I need to revise and rewrite and reorganize until the reader cannot help but root for the protagonist. On a map, I am at “A” and I know that my destination is “M.” Yet I do not know how to fill in B, C, D, E, F, etc.

What do you do when you face a setback? How do you summon the energy and motivation to move around or through an obstacle? Let me know in the comments below.