---
type: "Trust post"
title: "Five places to get stuck in the Write step and fixes"
docType: "Troubleshooting"
description: "Fix five places you get stuck in the Write step, from a frozen idea, lost fire and a weak ending to mood-only writing and fear of the chair."
resource: "https://cuongthach.com/docs/content-system/field-guides/stuck/stuck-while-writing/"
markdown: "https://cuongthach.com/docs/content-system/field-guides/stuck/stuck-while-writing/index.md"
tags:
  - "docs"
  - "en"
  - "content-system"
  - "Troubleshooting"
  - "Field guides"
status: stable
generated:
  by: "process:cuongthach-okf-export"
  at: "2026-10-25T02:36:04Z"
---
# Five places to get stuck in the Write step and fixes

The Write step is when you turn off the internet and pour out what you understand about each idea in the outline. Between Idea and Write there is **a handover**, a time to fill the gaps in your understanding.

This page gathers five common places to get stuck in this step, each with the same layout: symptom, cause, fix, check. The table of all thirteen places across the three steps is in [Fix a stuck step](/docs/content-system/field-guides/stuck/fix-a-stuck-step).

## You freeze on one idea while writing

![You freeze on one idea while writing](https://cuongthach.com/docs/_astro/illus-docs-bo-qua-y-khung.en.CuPOEWYX_ZTKTiY.svg "Stuck idea: mark it, keep writing")

Cuong says **you can pour out any idea you understand**. If you cannot, you are missing something in the handover between Idea and Write, and only you know how well you understand it.

**Symptom:** the other ideas pour out, but you cannot say one of them, or you want to open the web to look it up.

**Cause:** a blind spot you missed: you do not understand that idea well enough to explain it.

**Fix:** mark that idea and keep writing the others. When the pass is done, study that one idea, then write its part again. Do not copy and paste it into your notes.

**Check:** say the idea again in one go, with no freezing.

## An interruption kills your fire

Cuong describes it: a call or an incident comes while you write, and when you return you have lost the fire and your energy is down. **The outline and the stopping point** keep your direction.

**Symptom:** you come back after an interruption, cannot pick it up, and go off to do something else.

**Cause:** you write in one stretch on the mood of the moment, with no stopping point where you can put away what you were doing.

**Fix:** finish each step in one block of time, and stop at the end of an idea. When you return, read the outline and the idea you left half done, then keep writing. How to split your time is in [Publish steadily in short free slots](/docs/content-system/field-guides/publish-in-short-slots).

**Check:** you pick the writing up again within a few minutes without rereading the whole draft.

## The post gets weaker toward the end

Typing costs energy, and your energy drains bit by bit. That is why Pomodoro exists: 15 minutes of rest for every 30 minutes of work, to charge back up. Talking, you **finish a whole post in one go**, which Cuong calls one shot, and keep your energy to the end.

**Symptom:** the first ideas are very good, and the further down you go the weaker the post gets.

**Cause:** you type one long post in a single stretch.

**Fix:** at the Write step, switch from typing to talking in one go. Let AI turn it into text, then edit.

**Check:** the last idea of the new draft is as full and clear as the first.

## You can only write when you are in the mood

If you only write when you are happy, publishing **depends on your mood** that day. The outline cuts that dependence.

**Symptom:** when you are happy you can write, and when you are sad or tired you sit in front of a blank page and no words come.

**Cause:** there is no outline to hold on to, so writing depends on your feelings.

**Fix:** do the Idea step in a separate session. The writing session is then just following one idea at a time, with the internet off. Once you are in the flow, being happy or sad no longer matters.

**Check:** you finish a draft on a day when you are not in the mood.

## You are afraid to sit down and write

Cuong defines **putting things off as having a hard time sitting in the chair**: you find somewhere else to sit, you lie far from the desk, and sometimes you are haunted by the chair. Talk to write fixes this, and sitting and typing does not.

**Symptom:** your notebook has thirty topics and three months have gone by with no post written.

**Cause:** putting things off, not laziness: you dread typing because it looks like so much, or you run dry of ideas because you do not know what to say.

**Fix:** talk to write fixes both: you do not have to type, and the guiding questions lead you through the ideas one by one. Open the recorder and answer the first question.

**Check:** you are no longer afraid of the chair, you begin to enjoy it, and the post is done faster.

## Read next

- [Stuck at the Edit step](/docs/content-system/field-guides/stuck/stuck-while-editing) — Fix three places you get stuck in the Edit step, a post too short after editing, titles off the content and endless edits, with cause and check.
- [Brand profile template](/docs/content-system/resources/brand-profile-template) — A brand profile template with ten entries for the content system that you copy and fill in with the guide and examples, or write None yet.
- [Glossary of the content system](/docs/content-system/resources/glossary) — What every special term in the content system means, grouped by the Know - Trust - Love funnel and the Idea - Write - Edit process.

Source: https://cuongthach.com/docs/content-system/field-guides/stuck/stuck-while-writing/index.mdx