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How do you deal with getting stuck?



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Tue Aug 28, 2018 3:52 pm
mellifera says...



I'm pretty sure, as writers, we all know the feeling of being stuck.

I'm not necessarily talking about writers' block, but I suppose that could apply too (although that seems to me that it's a matter of motivation vs. just not knowing where to go next). I'm talking about that point of your story that you have any ideas for, or maybe the idea you did isn't working out. Either way, you've just run into a giant boulder blocking you story's narrow pathway. So how do you handle this?

Do you have any tricks for dealing with this? Are you currently having trouble with finding away around your story's roadblock?

I'm curious to know how everybody deals with this.
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Tue Aug 28, 2018 7:00 pm
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Oxara says...



I don't have a really set in stone method, it depend's on each story and the problem I am having. However in general I have two method's one is to just write it anyway's and come back to it later. And the second is to just explore new ideas or new ways of putting what I am trying to do, and see which one I lick the best. These don't always work and sometimes I have to try something new, but in general this is what I do.
  





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Tue Aug 28, 2018 7:21 pm
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StellaThomas says...



I've learnt that the worst thing I can do is obsess over it. The first thing I try, of late, is taking myself away from the screen and doing something to clear my mind in the hopes that the answer will come to me. Otherwise, I find that hand writing and making old fashioned brainstorms can be a big help in helping me draw connections and see what I can do to fill in a gap. Either way, I do think that getting away from a screen and stimulation really helps me to focus.

When it comes to the actual story and how I break through things, because I tend to write character driven stories, I usually look at - how are the characters reacting in this situation? Okay, so what would drive them from this place I have them now, to the place I need them to be? Do they need a nudge from someone else? What would motivate them to get there? I bridge the holes in my plot with some form or another of character development. Sometimes this means changing the plot to fit the characters. And that's okay!

It can be tough to accept that something isn't working for you - until you realise something that could work for you. You just need to find the secret ingredient, and to me, that's offline, in the pages of a notebook or somewhere else.

Reading a lot as well can help - when you hit a twist in a book you love and you think, "Ooh! How could I make this happen in my story? How could I change it? Would that fill the plot hole?"
"Stella. You were in my dream the other night. And everyone called you Princess." -Lauren2010
  





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Sat Sep 01, 2018 5:08 pm
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mellifera says...



Awesome! I love hearing other people's methods of dealing with stuff like this!

I sort of play around with problems as I encounter them depending on the situation. A lot of times if I'm stuck in a scene, I first want to figure out if I'm happy with the way things are going. It's not a very solid of good method, but there have been times where I've gotten stuck in the middle of a chapter and started over because the direction it was going wasn't going to work for me. Thankfully, that happens a lot less for me now! And it's definitely something I do not recommend haha.

Now, most of the time if I get stuck, I like to write down all the different paths I could take. Similar to what @StellaThomas said, I like to gauge reactions or possible outcomes of what's going on. Based on any ideas I come up with, I think try to link them together to form a "timeline", or tailor them to each other if they will work best in a chapter. I have to ask: what's going to drive the plot forward? How could I apply that to what's already going on?

Since I get a lot of little tidbits (especially when I'm at the stables, but a lot of times I'm just not at my computer), I always have a document for each of my stories that is full of plot ideas, conversations I might want to include between characters, notes about what's going on or what I might need to include in places, etc. So if I don't have an idea, I can peek in there to see if I wrote anything down that could apply to the place I've gotten stuck.

Yes! I really like to read books, especially those somewhat related to what I'm writing, so I can see what worked in them! Then it's just a matter of how you can rework it. It's like taking a piece of clay and reworking it into your own style, to see what best fits your own story.
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Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:32 am
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Prokaryote says...



An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you're stuck, choose one: a) you're writing without an outline, b) you deviated from your outline, or c) your outline wasn't detailed enough, and small unexpected story elements have coagulated over time to create a blockage. The third is the trickiest but most exciting, since it forces a rethinking of your story's overall plot based on new "information." In this case you may need to go back to the drawing board.

If it's B, because you've considered an entirely new direction for your story, go back and redo your outline before proceeding. If you haven't found a new direction, why are you deviating?

If it's A, stop -- outline time. Don't type it either, pen and paper is the only medium for high-level conceptualization.

Outlining is, sorta, kinda, can-be, annoying; but it's so worth it for the efficiency it lends when you sit down to slap out the story. Remember, if you know the ending, the beginning and middle are easy. If you only know the beginning, the middle and ending are hard. You don't embark on a journey without a final destination. Even if that destination changes halfway through the trip, it needs to be somewhere -- always be working towards something.
  





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Fri Sep 07, 2018 12:27 pm
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Kazumi says...



Take everything I say with a grain of salt, because I've only been a short-only writer so far. All the long-form projects I've planned are on hold lololol. I guess you can say these are short-term solutions or fixes more effective for short story writing.

One thing I do if I lose motivation is get off my butt and get physical. I walk around my neighborhood, do some pull-ups at the playground, that stuff. If I have cash or if I'm really in a slump, I head over to the nearest Dance Dance Revolution machine and dance away for like, an hour or so. You don't have to work out for real, but just get your body moving at least. It's a nice break from sitting down for a long time. Always come back from it with more drive to write. Yeah, it also works if you feel unmotivated to do your homework or paperworks or smth.

Another is napping. A 7-minute timer is good enough, 20 is plenty. Really good way to quick-charge yourself and avoid burnout. Don't worry too much about falling asleep. Even if you don't fall into sleep, you'll still feel kinda rested after you get back up.

I think that's also related to the concept of the brain's focused and diffused mode. In the focused mode your brain's trying to rack itself so hard it's zeroing in on the nitty-gritty stuff. But when you take relax with a nap, you enter the diffused mode, where your subconscious mind can bring forth things you "forgot" in your focused state. It's like when you suddenly remember a piece of info you forgot during the exam, after the exam.

Last is making tea. I dunno about coffee, but tea is pretty lit. If I really want a cup that's gonna get me awake, I go for English Breakfast. Relatively strong flavor, and is the most energizing out of all teas if I'm not mistaken. If I want something light, I go for just green tea or a herbal infusion with some sweeteners.

These aren't really fixes specific to writing. But I guess they're just ways you can stay energized and sharp and motivated in the short-term so you can write/come up with ideas in your best mental form.
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Thu Sep 13, 2018 8:51 am
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ChaosGreymistchild says...



I move on from that scene or sequence that's causing the trouble. If I have plans for the future, I begin to work on a scene I was looking forward too or is vague enough to be squirreled away for future use. It means that I'm still productive and in a writing mood. Like some of the others, I tend to move to paper-and-pen when I'm doing this, so when I'm typing it up when the story has progressed to that point, the flow is uninterrupted.

If it's more to do with motivation/the whole thing, I go back to why I started writing this in the first place. For me, this was a series of stories I read and fell in love with, and a burning hatred for the absolute mess that Riordon made of the Greco-roman and Norse mythos. So whenever I'm feeling the lack of motivation, I re-read those stories and explore more about the religions I choose to write about. It's surprisingly motivating.
  





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Rosendorn says...



I move backwards.

The number of times I have cut 10, 20, even 30k because I made a wrong choice earlier on in the story is probably staggeringly high. It's painful, but usually everything I'd written from that wrong choice was something pretty useless to the story. I actually end up forgetting what it was I had put in at the time, and I usually incorporate the basic feel back into a better scene.

Sometimes the paths you take are the wrong ones. Backtracking to see what building blocks I've put out and which ones are the wrong shape help me get a better story eventually, because you learn what doesn't work as much as what does.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

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Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:51 am
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FlamingPhoenix says...



I get stuck a lot, but I sometimes just need to step back and take a few minutes brake. Otherwise I'll just make a mess of the chapter if I try to push it. Another thing I do is read through the chapter again and see if it's even worth keeping. Other wise I'll just be wasting my time trying to think of what to write next. XD
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Wed Oct 03, 2018 7:02 am
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AvantCoffee says...



This is gonna sound a bit odd, but doing chores like washing dishes or folding clothes seems to stimulate the imaginative part of my brain. When I'm doing something that doesn't require a lot of mental attention yet is still engaging (almost meditative) my mind gets hyperactive brainstorming abilities lol. It's kind of the sweet spot between doing and not doing.

And always, always, without fail, if I'm putting too much pressure on getting the writing perfect my creativity suffocates and I barely get anywhere. So taking a casual approach to the problem, having patience, and tolerating imperfection allows me to push through and continue. Besides, I can always go back in the second draft to polish it all up. Movement is always better than stagnation in my books, even if that movement is awkward and wobbly.

I read some cool advice related to this kind of thing, which goes, "If your characters are developed enough that you understand their world and their motivations, then no plot turn is a wrong turn."

~

At the moment I'm struggling with accurately portraying a country I've never visited. All this research and no actual writing! XD Part of me is tempted to go "screw it, good enough for now" and just write the friggin place, but my confidence is weak.
  





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Tenyo says...



I bury my head in the sand and hide until the problem fixes itself.

Usually it doesn't.

I'm still working on getting the technique right.
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