continuity

[VALIDIUS]

i am trying to write a story. its an incest story and i know how it begins and i know how it ends, but the middle is proving difficult to write. there are only 2 main characters and maybe 4 extras. what do you do when you start a story you think is good only to end up baffled after the first paragraph? i sort know where the story goes, i just cant put it into print.

 

[FatDino]

i am trying to write a story. its an incest story and i know how it begins and i know how it ends, but the middle is proving difficult to write. there are only 2 main characters and maybe 4 extras. what do you do when you start a story you think is good only to end up baffled after the first paragraph? i sort know where the story goes, i just cant put it into print.

I abandon it.

I've abandoned at least 5.

 

[VALIDIUS]

i would too but.....

cant. its stuck in my head and wont come out. almost painful.

 

[mismused]

******

 

[FatDino]

cant. its stuck in my head and wont come out. almost painful.

Trust me. I know the feeling.

But if the story doesn't flow, you just can't force it to. If the characters don't want to talk, you can't pull the words out of their mouths.

Maybe try putting it aside for a while and waiting for your muse to come back? Or you can go to places similar to the settings of your story and see if you can get inspired?

 

[DeeZire]

what do you do when you start a story you think is good only to end up baffled after the first paragraph?

Set up some conflict? Then work on resolving it, or making it worse - whatever. This gives the reader a reason to stick with your story, and it gives you the opportunity to introduce your characters by their actions - much better if you can show character traits then just 'tell' them. For example: "Jack was a hot-tempered jack ass," is boring, whereas "Jack stomped into the room, glaring like George Bush at a press conference" is more visual, more entertaining to the reader.

(As if I should talk. I've been stuck on my Nude Day story for months, trying to get from the middle to the end.)

Perhaps you could start a few different scenes in your story, with the idea that eventually they will all take shape. Then you can string them all together to get to the ending.

 

[Weird Harold]

i am trying to write a story. its an incest story and i know how it begins and i know how it ends, but the middle is proving difficult to write. there are only 2 main characters and maybe 4 extras. what do you do when you start a story you think is good only to end up baffled after the first paragraph? i sort know where the story goes, i just cant put it into print.

Bearing in mind that I have a story stalled withthe same sort of problem -- I have a very good beginning and an outstanding ending, but the characters refuse to connect the two parts with an acceptble middle... It's been stalled for about five years now.

The solution to this kind of problem is often to outline the story or create a flow-chart/Story Board. Then expand on the outline/storyboard titles one or two sentences at a time for each heading. Repeat as required, adding one or two sentences to each heading until you have eneough at each point in the story to edit into coherent narrative and dialog

 

[bronzeage]

i am trying to write a story. its an incest story and i know how it begins and i know how it ends, but the middle is proving difficult to write. there are only 2 main characters and maybe 4 extras. what do you do when you start a story you think is good only to end up baffled after the first paragraph? i sort know where the story goes, i just cant put it into print.

Make a list of the scenes in the story.
Write a single sentence to describe what happens in the scene.
Work with this until you know exactly how the story will play out.

You can write the scenes in any order because you know what elements are carried forward from the previous scene.

 

[slyc_willie]

cant. its stuck in my head and wont come out. almost painful.

When in doubt, blow something up.

Oh, wait, that's for sci-fi writing. Hold on . . . .

The key is motivation. Why do your characters want to get from the beginning to the end? Don't write it like you're watching from the outside. get in your characters' heads and figure out who they are. Then they'll tell you how to get to the end.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Rewrite the beginning if you have to, and don't be afraid if the beginning rewrites the ending

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Yes, add some conflict. Or an obstacle.

 

[neonlyte]

i am trying to write a story. its an incest story and i know how it begins and i know how it ends, but the middle is proving difficult to write. there are only 2 main characters and maybe 4 extras. what do you do when you start a story you think is good only to end up baffled after the first paragraph? i sort know where the story goes, i just cant put it into print.

Stick it in a drawer for six months... when you dust it off you'll either know how to write it, or not. In which case...

 

[keeblercrumb]

i am trying to write a story. its an incest story and i know how it begins and i know how it ends, but the middle is proving difficult to write. there are only 2 main characters and maybe 4 extras. what do you do when you start a story you think is good only to end up baffled after the first paragraph? i sort know where the story goes, i just cant put it into print.

Since you already have received lots of good advice and writing tips.... I guess I can just offer up on what I do...

When I am going to be writing about a particularly bizarre or unusual sexual experience, I just try to take notes or pictures as I go along.

But that is just me, of course.

-KC

 

[MarshAlien]

But sometimes when I was started on a new story and I could not get going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, "Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know." So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut the scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written. - Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Take a shower. Imagine the straightest line from Point A, the beginning, to Point B, the end. You don't want to write that. Now put that out of your mind and let the story come to you. MarshAlien, How I Write This Crap

 

[VALIDIUS]

many thanks!

thanks to all for your most helpful advice! i have managed to put out 4 more paragraphs and i think i can make the characters work out they way i need them to.