Ever gotten stuck and feel like you can't go forward, but backwards isn't an option either?
I feel stuck, especially with my writing, I've been stuck on the same 3 chapters for nearly a week now and I'm not sure how to solve this problem without going back and restarting even though every book on writing you read specifically says DO NOT DO THIS.
My problem is that I can't help but do this. When the beginning of the book sucks, I don't want to finish it, and I'm not saying that it sucks, just that I didn't do ENOUGH to set up the characters. If people who read Twisted read the second book, Entangled they'd probably put it down and look at me while saying, "What the heck is going on?"
My only answer would be, "I really don't know."
Not exactly the best answer from the author who is supposed to 'know all' about her book. (Ha! That's a laugh! It takes me several drafts to get to know my characters really well, and I'm STILL struggling to figure what happens, you'd think after the 11 books that I've written, I would've gotten past this by now, but NOOO, (and yes, I am bragging, 11 books, but to tell you the truth they kind of SUCK, most of them are still in a 1st draft stage))
I need to figure out what's going on. I refuse to quit, I WON'T quit. I'm just kind of stuck.
Oh, big shout out to Stephanie Fowers and her amazing ability to sing about a good book. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5G5VkqK4a0
Hey Tayla! All of us get writer's block. No worries! My suggestion? Take a break. Watch some good movies, listen to some awesome songs. And come back and start brainstorming. Get out a notebook and write out every question you have, and everything that's blocking you from going forward. Is it a character? Is it their adventure? Is there not enough 'bad guy?' Then start going crazy with possible plot ideas(even if you might not ever use them): killing someone off, starting a new romance, new villains, a new wrong against the main characters, someone going bad, someone going good. Then after that you can pick your favorites and start moving forward. I also try to work on a few projects at a time, so that if one project is giving me problems, I can move to another one while I'm thinking. That way you won't feel overwhelmed or get bored or whatever. Sometimes the creative juices you get from one project seeps into the other and they feed off each other!
ReplyDeleteGood luck!