Best story progressions

[SpecterNecter]

For me, when I'm stuck, clarity usually comes when good and drunk. As I am tonight. I've been battling ang battling for the next path. I've had moments when I wake where I thought I had it only to shortly throw those pages into the fire(metaphorically), and when I thought all hope was lost comes the true clarity, when all inhibition, when all fear and all the binds that bind fall away and the path materializes right before your eyes like a siren singing the sweetest song luring you to your doom.

 

[THBGato]

When I'm stuck on a story, I go and talk to my wife. She's a far better and more experienced writer than me, and always has great advice, but sometimes just the sheer act of talking through the problem out loud allows me to find the solution.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I haven't been drunk in 22 years. No particular reason why, just outgrew it I guess.
I find that I do my best brainstorming when I'm at work. I frequently have mundane tasks that require no particular attentiveness, so I'm free to let my mind wander a bit. I often get past my roadblock after a few days.

 

[mildlyaroused]

I make a point not to write when I'm drunk. Don't want to build any dependencies in relation to my writing, other than on tea. Sometimes when I stumble home I'll jot down some ideas though, but no real prose.

 

[StillStunned]

I do a lot of thinking about my stories when I'm out on my daily walk. Either music on my headphones, or else an audiobook about writing, or a history book about some particular era. Inspiration tends to come flooding in.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I used to do a lot of thinking and plotting while walking - running through chunks of dialogue as well. I'm walking less these days for various reasons, but also finding I miss it less. Possibly I've just got faster at putting plots together - I'm also writing shorter and less convoluted stories.

I frequently get stuck, but I've also stopped feeling guilty about putting something aside for months until I'm ready to pick it up again. Short stories burst through adn get written immediately, medium sized ones tend to chuff on for a while, run out of steam and then get a second wind...novels...novels are a problem with my lack of focus, but I'll probably finish one *eventually*

 

[AlinaX]

I've done some of my best writing while swimming lengths.

 

[StillStunned]

I've done some of my best writing while swimming lengths.

I was trying to figure out how you did this, but then I realised you're probably swimming on your back with your laptop on your stomach.

 

[AlinaX]

I'm sure there's a joke about breaststroke in there somewhere.

 

[OffNSFW]

I find that I do my best brainstorming when I'm at work. I frequently have mundane tasks that require no particular attentiveness, so I'm free to let my mind wander a bit. I often get past my roadblock after a few days.

This is key, and something I wish were better understood about writing by people who don't write.

When you're working on something, you're always writing. When you're drifting off to sleep at night, when you're in the shower, when you're at work, when you're walking the dog.

Some of the ideas may come while you're sitting at the desk. But the big breakthroughs tend to come when you give yourself some distance from it, when you're not trying so hard to get them to happen. It all counts as writing.

 

[intim8]

When I'm, really stuck, I ask my MC, "What's the worst thing you could do right now? Or the worst thing that could happen to you other than dying?" Then I make it happen.

though I often wake up with the next scene in my head.

 

[SpecterNecter]

All good points. I don't write whole intoxicated but I find that broader ideas often come then. It's when I feel most depraved. Societal norms are like shackles sometimes but when I drink and explore my stories in my mind I feel so much more free. That was the point of the post anyway. I don't always need to be in that headspace but there are times it definitely helps.

 

[VallesMarineris]

Hemingway said, “Write drunk, edit sober.”

I have a few techniques I fall back on when I’m stuck:

— I always have a file as part of a project that I label “ideas”, where I put in random thoughts. I’ll go back and review them, sort them, whatever, to see if they jog something. This often works. Sometimes I get more ideas even if I don’t add anything to the manuscript.

— I don’t force myself to write linearly. If I’ve written the first few chapters and get stuck, I’ll see if I can get into a scene further along. So I might have a WIP with chapters 1-2 and 8-10 and scenes from other parts I don’t know what to do with yet. It’s all good and most of the words will find their place somewhere.

— Sometimes I realize I’m stuck because I don’t actually know enough about the background of the scene I’m trying to visualize. For example, recently I had a character get deep into tech bro biohacking. I was stuck on describing him because I don’t know much about that. I did some research and that got me going again. Weird dudes, by the way, that make great villains.

— Or I’ll just put the story away for a while. Last fall I was hot on a novel-length story. I was going a bit crazy with it, sci-fi erotica, putting 1-2K words/day into the computer, and would have done more except I had to pull myself away. I have a full-time job and I was traveling a lot. Got close to 100K words down and then hit a wall. Had to stop and give it some distance to wrap it up in an ending that made sense.

So I was restless, in the routine of writing, and I was looking for something, anything, to satisfy my habit. I keep a project file of story ideas and looked through it. I found an idea I’d sketched out a while back and started on it. Totally different plot concept that I thought might make a good short story. Cutting to the chase, I finished it at 70K words and I’m in the process of releasing on this site (https://literotica.com/s/the-secret-app-ch-01). When I’m done I’ll get back to the original story. Life is strange.

 

[toughfire]

I only write when I'm inspired, and in the case of erotica, when I'm also excited. If the inspiration goes away, I may never finish the story. I'm not a planner - I usually come up with the story as I write; and sometimes I have a very simple idea of what I want to do.

The thing that helps me continue writing a story is thinking about the characters involved. I don't want to waste them, so I eventually write more. At some point, let's say months, if I haven't finished a story yet, I conclude the story is irrelevant and get rid of it. I may recycle a character later.