Help please

[Handley_Page]

I'm not one for analysing the English language; participles and so on are, frankly, beyond me. But my current problem is a chronic inability to move the bloody story along because I don't know where its going.
I know what I want in the end (more or less), but how it gets there is a bloody mystery.

I'd appreciate some guidance from an author more experienced.

Fingers crossed.

 

[KeithD]

Category?

 

[Athalia]

Mark Twain wrote:

"If you invent two or three people and turn them loose in your manuscript, something is bound to happen to them--you can't help it; and then it will take you the rest of the book to get them out of the natural consequences of that occurrence, and the first thing you know, there's your book all finished up and never cost you an idea."

So maybe the trouble is that, while you have a certain ending in mind, your characters are thinking otherwise.

That' happened occasionally in my writing, most recently with the Jessica and Claire stories. Once the characters became defined in my mind, I just wrote down what they did.

Good luck with the story!

 

[where_is_RUTH]

Mark Twain wrote:

"If you invent two or three people and turn them loose in your manuscript, something is bound to happen to them--you can't help it; and then it will take you the rest of the book to get them out of the natural consequences of that occurrence, and the first thing you know, there's your book all finished up and never cost you an idea."

So maybe the trouble is that, while you have a certain ending in mind, your characters are thinking otherwise.

That' happened occasionally in my writing, most recently with the Jessica and Claire stories. Once the characters became defined in my mind, I just wrote down what they did.

Good luck with the story!

Further to the above. Instead of adding characters, write the bio's / back story of the characters you have. You won't use most of it, but it'll inform you as to what they'd do/act/say/think...


Or plagiarise !

 

[JPGmvny]

I'm not one for analysing the English language; participles and so on are, frankly, beyond me. But my current problem is a chronic inability to move the bloody story along because I don't know where its going.
I know what I want in the end (more or less), but how it gets there is a bloody mystery.

I'd appreciate some guidance from an author more experienced.

Fingers crossed.

Just go where your characters take you. If it's where you expected to end up, so beat it. If not, not.

 

[JLCC]

Just go where your characters take you. If it's where you expected to end up, so beat it. If not, not.

I had one story that in a way, kind of wrote itself. That is not to say it was easy, by any stretch.

The first three chapters were really about the male lead. Somehow, noting the above quote, the second three chapters were about the female lead (they were a couple). I can't even recall how I decided to move down that arc. However, once I decided on that, I was committed. It made for a painfully satisfying writing experience to make it happen and bring it to the conclusion that demonstrated her development.

 

[sdsioux]

I'm not one for analysing the English language; participles and so on are, frankly, beyond me. But my current problem is a chronic inability to move the bloody story along because I don't know where its going.
I know what I want in the end (more or less), but how it gets there is a bloody mystery.

I'd appreciate some guidance from an author more experienced.

Fingers crossed.

Be happy to look and advise. PM me
Tom

 

[DryLips]

I'm not one for analysing the English language; participles and so on are, frankly, beyond me. But my current problem is a chronic inability to move the bloody story along because I don't know where its going.
I know what I want in the end (more or less), but how it gets there is a bloody mystery.

I'd appreciate some guidance from an author more experienced.

Fingers crossed.

Let the story play out in your mind like a movie. Write like crazy, just do a mind dump as this is going on. You can go back later and clean it up by adding or removing events that feel right.

 

[HeyAll]

If you message me with the plot points, I can maybe give you some advice on the story.