Unstuck

by Barbara Dee

Seventh grader Lyla has an imagination full of fantasy adventures, but turning her ideas into a novel leaves her overwhelmed and stuck. As she navigates a school writing project, friendship pressures, and concerns about her older sister, Dahlia, Lyla begins to discover how writing—and reaching out to others—can help her find her voice.

Big Idea

Writing does not require perfect ideas or perfect first drafts; it requires manageable beginnings, experimentation, and revision. Lyla’s experiences also show that creative struggles are connected to feelings and relationships, and that asking for support is a strength.

Discussion Questions

1.Lyla has plenty of ideas, yet she struggles to write. What does her experience suggest about the difference between imagining a story and creating one?
2.How do Lyla’s expectations for herself influence her choices? When do high expectations help her, and when do they make moving forward harder?
3.How do Lyla’s concerns about Dahlia affect her attention, emotions, and writing? What can Lyla offer her sister, and what is beyond her responsibility?
4.When do Lyla’s assumptions about other people differ from what she eventually understands? How do these discoveries affect her relationships?
5.What does becoming “unstuck” mean by the end of the book? Which moments suggest that progress can happen before a problem is completely solved?

Lesson Plan

⏱ 45 minutes📦 Copies of Unstuck, paper or notebooks, pencils, three index cards or paper slips per student, highlighters, and a timer. Optional: shared digital documents.

Learning Goals

Explain how Lyla’s creative struggles develop the novel’s themes, using specific textual evidence.
Distinguish between scene and summary and describe how each affects narrative pace.
Use sentence length, dialogue, action, and selected details to control pacing in an original scene.
Apply a manageable drafting strategy and give specific, supportive peer feedback.

Activity Steps

1.Connect and notice — 7 minutes: Read a short, teacher-selected passage in which Lyla struggles with her writing. Identify what she wants, what interrupts her progress, and how the passage makes that struggle feel immediate. Students may discuss the fictional situation without sharing personal difficulties.
2.Build a small story — 6 minutes: Give each student three cards labeled Want, Obstacle, and Next Move. Students invent a fantasy character and write one concrete idea on each card, keeping the problem small enough to fit into a single scene.
3.Draft without perfecting — 10 minutes: Students arrange their cards and write a short scene beginning just before the obstacle appears. Encourage placeholders for names or descriptions so that uncertainty does not stop the draft.
4.Change the pace — 10 minutes: Students choose one moment and rewrite it twice. The fast version uses compressed action and little explanation; the slower version adds a purposeful thought, sensory detail, or exchange of dialogue.
5.Read, respond, and reflect — 12 minutes: Partners read both versions aloud and identify which choices change the pace. Each writer selects the version that best serves the scene and completes this reflection: “Like Lyla, I moved forward when I tried ___.”

Standards Connections

ELA: CCSS.RL.6.1 — Cite textual evidence to support analysis of Lyla’s experiences and the novel’s themes; adjust evidence expectations for grades 4–8.
ELA: CCSS.RL.6.3 — Describe how plot unfolds through episodes and how characters respond or change.
ELA: CCSS.W.6.3 — Write narratives using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
ELA: CCSS.W.6.5 — Strengthen writing through planning, revising, and trying a new approach with peer and adult support.
SEL: Self-awareness, self-management, and relationship skills — Recognize frustration, practice manageable next steps, and offer constructive support without assuming responsibility for another person’s well-being.

Printable Teacher’s Guide

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Grades 4-8 Ready to print

Pace-Write-Read Study with Pace-Write It!

Barbara Dee’s Unstuck offers a useful distinction for young writers: having an exciting story in your imagination is not the same as getting that story onto the page. Lyla’s difficulty writing her fantasy novel makes the usually invisible work of composing into part of the plot. Students can study both what happens to Lyla and how Dee turns hesitation, worry, and small decisions into readable narrative movement. In a Pace-Write-Read study, students first notice where their reading speeds up or slows down, then investigate the language and structure behind that response. Lyla’s school experiences, conversations, family concerns, and private thoughts provide opportunities to compare external action with internal movement. A pause in action can still move a story forward if it changes what a character understands, fears, or decides. The workshop treats pacing as a choice rather than a race. Students borrow a craft move from a selected passage, write a small scene, and read it aloud to test its effect. Keep the emphasis on experimentation: Lyla’s experiences invite students to separate an imperfect draft from a judgment about their ability, while recognizing that writing is not a substitute for support when someone is struggling.

Element	How to notice or teach it in the novel
Pacing	Compare a passage about Lyla’s stalled writing with a passage involving an immediate interaction at school or home. Ask how the amount of action, thought, and dialogue affects the reader’s sense of speed.
Plot	Track the writing project alongside Lyla’s friendship and family experiences. Identify where an event outside her writing changes what she feels able—or unable—to put on the page.
Prosody	Read a short passage of Lyla’s thoughts aloud, then read a conversation aloud. Experiment with stress, pitch, and pauses to show the difference between anxious thinking and spoken exchange.
Word	Collect precise words that convey Lyla’s frustration, anticipation, or uncertainty. Substitute more general words and discuss what the original choices contribute to emotional intensity.
Concept	Explore the central contrast between an expansive imagined fantasy and the difficulty of writing a first draft. Ask how that contrast gives an internal struggle a concrete, understandable shape.
Voice & Worldview	Notice how Lyla’s imaginative interests and self-expectations influence the way she describes events. Have students distinguish what happens from the meaning Lyla assigns to it.
Point of View	Examine how the narration keeps readers close to Lyla’s understanding while leaving other people’s thoughts less certain. Rewrite a brief interaction from another character’s perspective and identify what becomes newly visible.
Setting & Place	Compare the pressures associated with school and home in Lyla’s life. Ask how the location of a conversation influences what she says, conceals, or notices.
Original Characters	Study Lyla as more than “a kid with writer’s block”: list her interests, contradictions, relationships, and choices. Apply that approach to the characters students invent for their own fantasy scenes.
Dialogue	Select an exchange in which Lyla and another character do not appear to understand the situation in the same way. Notice how what is said—and left unsaid—can create tension without a long explanation.
Details	Find a small action or observation that reveals Lyla’s emotional state. Ask students to explain why that particular detail earns its place rather than merely decorating the scene.
Descriptions	Compare a descriptive passage with nearby action or dialogue. Consider whether the description establishes atmosphere, reveals Lyla’s perspective, or delays an anticipated moment.
Firsts	Track the first introduction of Lyla’s writing difficulty and of her concerns about Dahlia. Discuss which questions these introductions establish and how later scenes complicate the initial impression.
Immediacy & Engagement	Locate a moment when readers experience Lyla’s problem through an unfolding interaction rather than an explanation afterward. Identify the immediate want or uncertainty that makes the scene engaging.
Story Scenes, Summaries & Structures	Mark where Dee dramatizes a particular interaction and where she moves across time more briefly. Ask why some moments in Lyla’s writing and relationships need a full scene while others can be summarized.
Tension / Suspense / Surprise	Look beyond physical danger: Lyla’s uncertainty about writing, belonging, and Dahlia can generate emotional suspense. Identify what readers hope will happen and what they worry might happen instead.
Flashback, Flash-Forward, Cliffhanger	Check selected passages for references to earlier experiences, imagined future outcomes, or unresolved endings, distinguishing these from fully dramatized time shifts. Discuss how each verified example changes readers’ expectations.
Page Turns and Chapter Breaks	Read a chapter ending and list what remains unresolved for Lyla. Then examine whether the next chapter answers that question immediately or shifts attention elsewhere.
Pace & Creativity	Use Lyla’s difficulty moving from ideas to draft to distinguish a writer’s working speed from a finished story’s reading speed. A slowly produced paragraph can still create a fast-moving scene.
Play	Invite students to borrow Lyla’s interest in fantasy for a low-stakes experiment: invent an unlikely obstacle and write three possible responses. Emphasize discovery rather than selecting the “best” idea immediately.
Performance	Perform a short conversation involving Lyla twice, changing pauses and emphasis without changing the words. Discuss how delivery alters the apparent tension and how a writer can suggest that delivery on the page.
Personality	Notice how Lyla’s reactions reveal personality even when little outward action occurs. Ask students to replace a generic reaction in their drafts with one their particular character would have.
Humor	Find a moment students perceive as funny or wry in Lyla’s observations or interactions. Discuss whether its humor creates connection, offers relief, or makes an awkward situation more noticeable.
Pause	Locate a reflective pause around an emotionally important interaction. Ask whether the pause deepens understanding or postpones a response the reader is waiting for.
Poetry / Poetic Devices	Search a selected passage for imagery, comparison, or sound patterns rather than assuming that a prose novel must contain formal poetry. If students find figurative language, discuss how it makes Lyla’s experience more vivid.
Repetition	Track recurring concerns about writing and getting stuck. Ask what changes each time a concern returns so students can distinguish purposeful development from simple repetition.
Rhythm	Read a paragraph aloud and mark its sentence-length pattern. Compare the rhythm of a worried or reflective passage with one built around quick responses.
Punctuation	Inspect punctuation in a passage of thought or dialogue and test its effect aloud. Students can repunctuate one sentence experimentally, then explain how the revised pauses change its tone or pace.
Questions	Collect questions Lyla asks or implicitly struggles with about writing and other people. Distinguish questions that demand an immediate answer from larger questions that sustain the novel.
Compare-Contrast	Compare Lyla’s imagined writing process with the process she actually experiences. Use evidence to explain how that gap contributes to both conflict and growth.
Objects	Choose a concrete object associated with Lyla’s writing in a passage students have read. Discuss whether it functions as a practical tool, a focus for emotion, or both, without assuming every object is a symbol.
Threes	Check a passage for a three-part phrase, sequence, or grouping; discuss its effect if one appears. As a transfer exercise, give Lyla-inspired writing obstacles three escalating beats and test whether the third changes the pattern.
Lists	Explore how listing possible ideas differs from developing one of them into a scene, a useful distinction for understanding Lyla’s struggle. Students can list possibilities quickly, then select just one to dramatize.
White Space & Negative Space	Examine paragraph breaks and any scene breaks in the edition being used. Ask how these spaces separate thoughts, mark transitions, or give an emotional moment room to register.
Art & Graphics	Treat the cover and book design as paratext rather than assuming the story uses interior illustrations. Compare the cover’s suggestion of being “unstuck” with Lyla’s experience, then create a visual pacing map of a chapter.
Interactives & Gamification	Use this as a teaching adaptation, not a claim that the novel contains game features. Create optional “next-move” cards—add dialogue, introduce an obstacle, or let a character decide—to help students move beyond a Lyla-like drafting stall.
Placement	Study where Dee places a revealing thought before or after dialogue in a selected interaction. Move that thought experimentally and discuss how placement changes readers’ interpretation.
Form	Examine how a novel about a young writer connects the story of living with the work of inventing stories. Discuss why imagining a fantasy narrative and narrating Lyla’s everyday experiences create different craft demands.
Dummy	Adapt this publishing term into a six-panel paper mock-up rather than treating it as a feature of the novel. Map a sequence from Lyla’s experience, giving important moments more space and transitions less.
Passion	Ask what Lyla’s love of imagined stories helps her persist through, and why caring deeply can also increase pressure. Students identify one aspect of their own fictional scene that makes them curious enough to continue.

Pace-Write It!

20-minute Pace-Write-It! task: “One Small Move.” Minutes 0–3: Revisit a short passage in which Lyla has trouble turning her fantasy ideas into writing; name the difference between needing a whole story and needing a next sentence. Minutes 3–5: Students invent a fantasy character who wants one concrete thing but encounters one obstacle. Minutes 5–11: Draft a short scene beginning at the obstacle, using placeholders whenever a missing name or detail threatens to stop progress. Minutes 11–15: Choose one moment and revise its pace—either compress it into quick action or expand it with a significant observation, thought, or line of dialogue. Minutes 15–18: Partners read the original and revision aloud and describe the effect without ranking the writers. Minutes 18–20: Students underline the choice that most changed the pace and complete an exit ticket: “My next small writing move is ___.” Connect the task back to Lyla: moving forward can mean making one workable choice, not solving the entire story.

Classroom Activities

Pace-Write It! From Stuck Moment to Moving Scene

Students use Lyla’s struggle to begin her fantasy novel as a model for writing a small, imperfect scene rather than planning an entire book. After making movable scene cards, they draft one moment in two versions—one that moves quickly and one that slows down—then compare how pacing changes the reader’s experience.

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