Authors of both fiction and non-fiction are familiar with the technical and structural problems that may occur during a project, often at the oddest and most inconvenient times.
"Intellectual bottlenecks" is how I would prefer to label them, because the project cannot proceed apace until they have been resolved.
Some authors go about planning their book projects systematically and meticulously.
Outlines are drawn up showing key elements of the project, such as: - an overall theme for the book; - its core structure (e.
g.
Part One: War, Part Two: Peace); - tentative placement of chapters and subsections; - sketching out each chapter, at least with a rough outline.
Other authors prefer to go about things somewhat more haphazardly, driven by instinct, intuition, inspiration, hunches, or maybe even a sense of divine intervention.
Some of them start on page one and keep going forward slowly and methodically, others work in multiple sections at any given time, apparently without much of a road map.
Surprisingly, few authors are immune from running into "intellectual bottlenecks.
" Composing a book is a complex task, and getting lost half-way is not the only thing that can go wrong.
Here are some reasons why that can be:

• Material must be organically coherent to capture the reader's attention, therefore a shallow plot or theme may cause the writer to "freeze up" half-way through a project;
• Even a "logical" structure may prove inadequate once material expands and spreads into new directions during the creative process - profound self-doubt and confusion may ensue;
• The "one trick pony" eventually looks itself in the mirror or hears someone say: "This was very interesting up until a point, but is that all?"

The potential causes for such bottlenecks are too many to be listed here, but they all have one thing in common: The writer may be unable to overcome them alone, and should therefore consider involving a professional to look at things with fresh eyes.
This may be an experienced editor, a fellow writer with time to spare, a manuscript consultant, or anyone else with the experience and independence to assist.
A book project evaluation and development expert can almost certainly prevent a bottleneck from turning into a serious crisis.