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What do you do when you get stuck?


  • Marta
    May 13 9:45 PM
    Reply

    I have been working on a novel and I am 319 pages into it and everything was going along fine...the scenery was rolling in my head like a movie reel and the words were flowing and even the characters were cooperating--they usually have a mind of their own--but then one morning I go to the computer and zip! I have come to a complete halt--written myself into a corner with no way out. Any advice on how I should proceed? I hate to just give up at this point--it's a good story and the whole things was thought out. I am a short story writer but I am trying to break out of that box,is this a sign that I am getting in too deep? Or not deep enough?
  • It's a sign you got writer's block. >.>

    Write something different, take a break, watch a movie--that's what I do to get over it. : )

  • Marta
    May 13

    Reply

    Really? Writer's block? But I am able to write other stories--shorter ones but still writing--maybe this story was a short story not meant to get that long...in the way that raisins aren't meant to be grapes. Thank you for your advice,I will consider it.
    • 319 pages isn't a short story, lol.

      I have the same thing happen to me. Sometimes I just get burnt out on writing the piece, or want to write something else. I always end up going back to the piece that isn't coming though.

      And no problem. Hope it helps. : )
  • the term writers block gets over used

    Just skip to the next chapter, or skip to the end and work your way back.

    As long as you know how each chapter will start and end, there's no need to write them in numerical order. ( I never do, but maybe im weird.)
    • I never skip chapters. It throws me off balance and I end up abandoning the whole thing because the first issue was never resolved.

      For some people it's good to have a basic structure. I mean, the story I'm writing starts off the first few chapters that basically consist of memories and musings on the characters' thoughts, but it still has a cohesive plot line following it.

      And it's hard to go from writing a tender scene between a mother and daughter, and then skip ahead to some hardcore battle-fest between two bad-ass dudes. Your emotions get all messed up and it comes out forced, but writing cohesively keeps the emotions flowing smoothly and changing slowly. Tension builds up.
      • What happens

        When a tender scene between a mother and daughter is chronologically followed by a hardcore battle-fest between two bad-ass dudes?

        It's not like movies are filmed in sequence, it's all just patched together in editing. An actor might show up on set expecting a big action scene, only for it to get rained off and end up in a lot filming a love scene.

        I dont claim to have any great technique, but having the writing process grind to a halt every time i got stuck on one scene would drive me mad.

        I just finished a 15k short story, and even in that i skipped past scenes i was stuck on.
        • The tender scene flows into the battle-fest naturally.

          And I feel that, although I passionately love both, movies and books are quite different.

          I'm not trying to challenge your writing technique. It just seemed odd to me.

          Hey, if it works for you, go for it.

        • Barbara
          May 27

          Reply
          On the story I'm writing now (not promoting), I have parts of chapterds 4, 5, & 6 on my computer, *plus* the final chapter. I add more to each one daily.
    • Not weird in my book, but then I consider myself weird

      The first and last scene are usually the very first things I write. I'll then randomly write scenes as they come to me even if at the same time I'm writing linearly ch1 to ch2 to ch3 etc. Sometimes I still get writer's block, but that's when I know I need to take a break from the story and come back later.

      Short stories I usually write from beginning to end, however I usually know how it is going to end when I begin writing.

  • Marta
    May 14

    Reply

    The problem being that I travel in a straight line and write first chapter etc.--I work from beginning to end. beginning. middle. end. I don't understand those writers who start at the end or in the middle then work their way back or forwards--how do they do that? I doesn't seem logical. I don't want to be rigid in my writing--but,I am a simple girl in a complicated world and I like order. Structure--all my little duckd lined up in a row--all my books in my personal library on the dewey decimal system. So,I guess maybe I will try to relax--and not bang my head against the nearest wall--and get back to it at a later time. Thank you both for your help.
    • I wouldn't recommend skipping ANYTHING, lol. If you know the chronological order, you're a lot less likely to have problems. If you skip a chapter, your characters might end up in a brothel and you'll have no idea what convinced them to go there.

      XD
    • what barbara said, or if you've written yourself into a corner if it's fantasy or sci-fi, you can always invent something or use magic to get out of it. One reason I love those genres.

  • Barbara
    May 14

    Reply
    I am very illogical in my writing I can have the end done, and then work to that, or have the middle and craft around it. It's rare I have the first part done without knowing exactly how it's going to end, and having the chapter to end it already done.

    Making an outline will help with getting over writer's block... so will writing other things. Go back to the story every so often to see if it clicks in your brain.

    Or, if you've written yourself into a corner with the story, you may have to go back and edit to get out of the corner. Happens to us all eventually, and although we hate to scrap good stuff, it might need to be done.... just, save the scrapped stuff in case you can incorporate it into a story later. (Half my stories are a hodge-podge of unfinished fiction... just rewritten for the story )
  • post what you wrote, and then ask the other people on storywrite to give you ideas about how to finish your story,


    i mean isn't that the whole effin point of this site?
    • seriously

      isn't people helping each other write the whole point of this site?
  • It is?

    I thought it was pretending to be vampires.
  • I've been stuck in my sci-fi novel for a decade... what I do is watch every SF movie I can find that's near to my idea, no matter how bad it is, and grab anything I can from it. Maybe thats what you should do with your novel, whatever genre it is. Hope this helps.

  • Marta
    May 23

    Reply

    Mines is about four men who go out into the woods--nothing like Deliverance--with a guide and find that they have to learn how to get along if they are to make it out of the woods alive and theiur guide is a sort of predator herself and is of no help to them and there's her wolf pet. It's not a vampire or werewolves book--I rather like Aliens myself--so there's one in there. It's a good mix and too long to rewrite here--but I am going to conitnue it elsewhere.
  • Writer's block... the author's flu. I've been getting it on and off this season. Allergies, I suppose.

    I suggest taking a break. Muse on your story and look at your surroundings for ideas to influence you. Read books, watch movies, listen to music. Indulge in creativity but always keep the plot line in the back of your head.

    Don't force yourself to write, it'll only be worse. If I need a break I'll take from a week to three weeks.

    Hope I helped. Get better!
  • Soak in a hot tub!

    Essentially, just like the person above me said- muse on the story. I let the characters talk through me- annoying as anything, because you can't exactly write in water unless you have a supply of waterproof paper, which I don't anymore. My characters converse, get angry, fight, all aloud, so I can hear their tones and stuff.
    Then I write a short story about it and them, and clearly things change (because I have a crappy memory and there's no waterproof paper). Do you have a plan for where it's going? My most recent novel actually began as a short story which now acts as the end (I think- always subject to change). I had backstory there, which is how the first few chapters were born, and as the story has evolved, so has my final chapter. I write out of order a lot- it works for me to know the conflict I'm headed towards and what conflicts must lead to that. It sounds like you know where it is going but don't write with a set path or outline. I like the idea for the novel- could you (hate saying this, because I hated these books) pull a choose your own adventure, almost? Take your characters back one chapter and see if they do the same things. Don't let yourself look at your first version, write it from memory or completely different than you'd planned. See if that sparks some ideas. "Written into a corner" sounds like you literally can't move the storyline forward. Sorry for sounding so vague, but it really depends on whether the problem is in you and your relation with the story or within the story itself.

    Meanwhile, you should really let your characters sit down and have a heart to heart while you aren't able to write it all down (I don't, but you could record as you talk aloud). Even somewhere like on the way to work if there's traffic would work well, although for my characters a less stressful environ like a steaming bath is much better. I don't know. Hope you have gotten back to writing, if not, good luck. Whatever you do, don't put the story away for good, although it might help to put the actual story aside while it just lives and grows inside your head (eeek, sounds like a tumor...).
  • I got stuck here and there in the novel I finished this spring. I'd know this awesome scene I wanted to write, but there had to be stuff in between, and I was bored with it, or didn't know what needed to happen.

    I'd take a break and read another book or watch a movie or something. My subconscious was always working over the plot in the background of everything I did, though. I'd see ideas in books or TV, and it would click something in my head, and from that new idea, I was able to write a bit more. Sometimes it took a week or more to get even a basic idea out, that I then changed about three times. But in the end, I got it all done.

    I lived and breathed my characters while I was writing that story; I could hear their voices and I knew their personalities. They had snappy comebacks all their own when I decided what I was gonna have them do next. They were like actors on a film set, and they'd complain about scenes or sit around, bored, when I had nothing for them to do.

    Knowing them so well eventually helped me get through, I think. I'd made their personalities, and since my story was largely character-driven, I tended to let them act out as they would, as long as it fit in the plot.

    Not sure that will help you or not, but it's what worked for me.
  • I like to take a break and look at pictures on Deviant art or goggle.When I see a photo that inspires me I go back to my writing and add the scene or whatever i'm stuck on in the writing.
  • “A long time ago, vampires ate one of three things: animals, humans and bugs and since bugs and animals didn’t keep them surviving, they would eat humans. But, One clan, the Fear Clan, didn’t think humans were enough so they started eating…vampires. When they did this, another clan, The Vamp Clan, decided that vampires who were with the Fears eat other vampires and vampires who are against them eat animals. Most vampires disagreed to this and continued to eat humans but it turned out that the Fear Clan leader, Valcamire Fear, decided to eat vampires who ate humans and that is when most of the vampire clans were forced to eat animals.”

    that was said by my main character's mother in Chapter 4-Finding the Dad when she was reading from a book about the main character's family tree.

    right at that moment, i got writers block so what i did was rent at least 5 didfrent vampire movies(oldies because they have original facts) and watched them daily. now i'm almost done chapter 5.

    Try going deep into the subject by looking in the least thought place.

    see the whole first chapter here:http://storywrite.com/story/303116

    hope this helps!

    • KodyBoye
      June 28

      Reply
      Uhm... you'd do best to edit out any mention/excerpt/link to your story. That's promoting, lol. (Just saying--Barbara will remove it otherwise and you'll have a 'removed due to promotion' thing slapped over your post.)
  • bite someone

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