It just won't go...

[Mal_Bey]

I am a relatively new author, and I am just stuck. I have a new story I am working. It has a good premise, and I have laid out the general plot order. I have my characters laid out enough that they should be able to tell their story to me to transcribe. In other words, I think I am at the point where the story should start rolling of its own accord, but it just won’t move forward. I am curious if anyone has a way to help get me unstuck.

Writing for me is watching my characters performing a play, and transcribing it. If something rings hollow, or can be improved, you rewind the play, make the change, and watch the story proceed again. As the author, I know where I think the story is heading, but details like dialog and action are revealed by the characters. Occasionally the whole focus of a story can be rewritten because a character says a truth that is too compelling to ignore. You go back, reobserve and rewrite, over and over. Eventually the story is RIGHT, and you publish.

My last story I admit was a retelling of another author’s story. It was a story that grabbed me, but I felt the author told the story from the wrong point of view. I took the original story, followed my preferred character instead, and left with a story I am fairly proud of. I feel I am a comparable point with this story. I could tell you the 10-sentence version of the story. I can tell you about the characters, when they met, and some relevant familial details. I know how this story goes down. But I just cannot get the actors doing anything worth writing down.

My last story, I could sit for hours each day watching my characters do the show. It was that easy. I threw out whole scenes because what they did next was so much better. This time, I got one character who is passively talking about herself, but not really doing anything. It is mostly drivel to make psychiatrists despair. But at least she is talking. The rest of the cast are manikins, sitting there with dead eyes.

Can anyone help me get unstuck? I suspect that I just need the falling pebble that will start the avalanche down the hill. I just can’t find it.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I am a relatively new author, and I am just stuck. I have a new story I am working. It has a good premise, and I have laid out the general plot order. I have my characters laid out enough that they should be able to tell their story to me to transcribe. In other words, I think I am at the point where the story should start rolling of its own accord, but it just won’t move forward. I am curious if anyone has a way to help get me unstuck.

Writing for me is watching my characters performing a play, and transcribing it. If something rings hollow, or can be improved, you rewind the play, make the change, and watch the story proceed again. As the author, I know where I think the story is heading, but details like dialog and action are revealed by the characters. Occasionally the whole focus of a story can be rewritten because a character says a truth that is too compelling to ignore. You go back, reobserve and rewrite, over and over. Eventually the story is RIGHT, and you publish.

My last story I admit was a retelling of another author’s story. It was a story that grabbed me, but I felt the author told the story from the wrong point of view. I took the original story, followed my preferred character instead, and left with a story I am fairly proud of. I feel I am a comparable point with this story. I could tell you the 10-sentence version of the story. I can tell you about the characters, when they met, and some relevant familial details. I know how this story goes down. But I just cannot get the actors doing anything worth writing down.

My last story, I could sit for hours each day watching my characters do the show. It was that easy. I threw out whole scenes because what they did next was so much better. This time, I got one character who is passively talking about herself, but not really doing anything. It is mostly drivel to make psychiatrists despair. But at least she is talking. The rest of the cast are manikins, sitting there with dead eyes.

Can anyone help me get unstuck? I suspect that I just need the falling pebble that will start the avalanche down the hill. I just can’t find it.

Welcome to the wide world of writing. I fully understand where you’re at. Sometimes I email/PM other people and run through the issues, which can help. Sometimes I park that story and work on something else. Sometimes I’m completely boxed in and can’t resolve the issue.

You could either post a short portion here with the issue, or I’m happy to read the full section if you send me a PM and I’ll send my email.

Best of luck.

 

[SamScribble]

If a story feels as if it is ‘spinning its wheels’, it is often because there is no reason for the reader to want to know what happens next. This is not to say that the story needs to bounce from crisis to crisis, but the reader does need a reason to keep reading.

If the reader – even ‘the reader’ in the writer’s head – thinks that they have a clear view down the road they are likely to think they already know what’s going to happen next. To get things moving, try dropping in a twist or two. It doesn’t have to be anything major – just something that will get the reader thinking: ‘I didn’t see that coming. I’d better read on.’

Good luck.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I haven't had this problem, yet. My process is a little different. But reading what other authors have written about getting stuck like this made me think of two things:

1) put some words in the mouth of one of the quiet characters i.e. answer the question: if the character was talking, what do *you* think they'd say? Then see how that feels or what comes of it.

2) start writing the parts you're sure of. Just start putting down the plot, filling in the scenes, write the ending, whatever, just to get some words out. Then see how that feels.

NotWise has talked about major rewrites to get a story moving, he may have some specific advice...

Good luck! It's frustrating to get stuck, especially when you like the story.

 

[SimonDoom]

The simplistic but true answer is that you need to just write. There really is no substitute or better answer than that. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If it's your first story, or one of your first stories (I couldn't find any other Literotica stories that you had published), then just do it and publish it and don't worry if it's perfect.

I wrote my first published Literotica story, which was about 4,000 words, in about 24 hours. A contest deadline was looming, and I decided to stop writing the much longer story I was working on and get a story in on time for the deadline. I did it. I let go of expectations and worries. You know what? It wasn't that good. It didn't get a high score. It didn't get that many views. But I did it, I published it, and I moved on. The next story did better.

My recommendation is this: figure out your character. What's the character's motivation? What does the character want that the character doesn't have? Give yourself a rough idea of the story length that isn't very long, so you can actually get it done quickly. Then just write the story with a focus on how the character would act in the situation you've created. Silence that paralyzing voice that asks whether the character is the right character, or whether little details in your story could be perfected. Just do it, and see what happens.

Next time it will be easier, and you will be better. But there won't be a next time unless you make this time just happen.

 

[gordo12]

Sometimes I park that story and work on something else. Sometimes I’m completely boxed in and can’t resolve the issue.

What Rusty said:

It's one of the reasons I have twenty or so stories going at any one time. I had one for a book I wanted to be finished by the beginning of Dec. No joy. I put it aside and a couple of days ago had a brainstorm that sent me off on a new angle that I think will work very well. Even better, it opened a path for an unexpected sequel.

 

[HeyAll]

Perhaps the plot isn't right.

I find that when the plot is really good, it's easy to write.

Keep focusing on ways to make the plot more exciting and the writing will come.

 

[Mal_Bey]

Thanks for the tips. Amid the been-tried and fears, I did find a few things I am going to ponder. Not sure the pebble I need is here yet, but there is good stuff.

I have published two stories previously. (https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=2936440&page=submissions). I think the scores are a quite accurate reflection of the stories. Frenchman is competent if sophomoric, but it is a first submission. Gifts is a much better story, but doing a rewrite was a crutch that masks my biggest writing weakness currently: having something original to say. I resist writing the cliche stories that have been done to death. The world does not need another Hot-Wife/Poker story. I love how Gifts is different from its source, and is a worthy effort, but the source did give me the marker points to ski through. Frenchman is more original, but is really a simple story. It's barely more than a bit of observational humor with a sex scene attached. Story3 is a self challenge to come up with a story myself as good as Gifts. Currently Story3 should be superior to Frenchman as it is a more complex story, but may be lesser than Gifts in the end.

 

[Sextified]

I am a relatively new author, and I am just stuck. I have a new story I am working. It has a good premise, and I have laid out the general plot order. I have my characters laid out enough that they should be able to tell their story to me to transcribe. In other words, I think I am at the point where the story should start rolling of its own accord, but it just won’t move forward. I am curious if anyone has a way to help get me unstuck.

Our writing processes are quite similar. I usually have some spark of an idea, or a conglomeration main character made up of real life people stuck in my head, and I get started without any expectations of my own. The longer I am 'around' my characters the more of a deep connection that I feel for them. My 'actors' definitely talk to me, and my writing is ALWAYS better whenever I decide to listen to them.

Writing for me is watching my characters performing a play, and transcribing it. If something rings hollow, or can be improved, you rewind the play, make the change, and watch the story proceed again. As the author, I know where I think the story is heading, but details like dialog and action are revealed by the characters. Occasionally the whole focus of a story can be rewritten because a character says a truth that is too compelling to ignore. You go back, reobserve and rewrite, over and over. Eventually the story is RIGHT, and you publish.

I mentally write all the time, as I move thru the day, and I often look thru each character's eyes that are involved in the scene. I even play around with the POV, switch to a strict world view narrator telling the same story, and also come up with a 'campfire' short story telling of the action. When I am 'imagining', I pretty much take a hands off approach to what THEY what to tell me. After having put away the originally typed words away for a few days, I will reread what I have produced in a "creative editor" mode, and just see what happens. Any ideas or important details that my daydreaming has come up with, tend to flow into my stream of thought as I retype, redirect and embellish.

My last story, I could sit for hours each day watching my characters do the show. It was that easy. I threw out whole scenes because what they did next was so much better. This time, I got one character who is passively talking about herself, but not really doing anything. It is mostly drivel to make psychiatrists despair. But at least she is talking. The rest of the cast are manikins, sitting there with dead eyes.

Quite often I have had a character go totally 'silent' on me, almost always an accurate sign that they aren't agreeing with what I am 'cooking up' for them. If I have to go 'solo', without their input for very many pages, I have learned to MAKE myself stop. Going page after page, without the correct inspiration, usually just makes an unreadable mess of things.

Can anyone help me get unstuck? I suspect that I just need the falling pebble that will start the avalanche down the hill. I just can’t find it.

If you still feel that there is a worthwhile kernel at the heart of this story, and that you do have the right characters to tell it? I would suggest that you are starting your tale in the wrong place. Perhaps hit the fast forward or reverse button on your plot, and see what happens.

When your Actors are only able to TELL you the story, and aren't LIVING the story, quite often you have totally missed a gem of an opportunity to tell an interesting bit, naughty or not.

If she is talking about her past, and it seems sort of stodgy to you, then go BACK to her past and write about her LIVING it instead. If what she is TELLING you is actually just the needed backstory YOU need as a writer, but your readers don't need read about it in full detail? Then go FORWARD to where her having had that OLD experience truly complicates and makes her NEW adventure that much more interesting.

A lot of Authors know tons of important, but basically uninteresting, details about their main characters. It gives the writer the frame of reference that they seem to need to be able to have their Actors talk about where THEY want their own story to go.

Don't assume that where YOU first met them as an Author, is the same place where the READER will enjoy being introduced to them the most.
I hope this helps!

Feel free to send me a PM, as I am in inspirational 'waiting' mode myself at the moment.

(Been there. Doing that. Repeating the cycle)

 

[BiscuitHammer]

"It just won't go...'

You just went full Pakled. NEVER go full Pakled!

Sorry, I'm addicted to Star Trek humour.

But concerning being stuck, boy do I get it. However, I find the easiest thing to do is to break down the writing into what is involved and who. I try very hard to make sure that my characters all speak and think differently than one another. Not only is it easier to read, but it's also easier to write, since it is suddenly somehow fresh.

This also applies to a character's thought processes and perceptions. If they're likely to all notice different things in a situation, or at least notice the same things differently, then you've opened up more fresh dialogue and story that readers find interesting.

Is the character you're dealing with smart? Are they a dunce? Educated? Not-so-educated? Expansive or limited vocabulary? My character Jeanie is about as smart as a bag of hammers, but she's lots of fun to read, because she speaks differently than everyone around her, and her perceptions are skewed from all the smart people she's careful to surround herself with.

Our stories are all about the characters we write. So it makes sense to ensure that they can be differentiated from each other. Do all your RL friends speak and sound the same?

Apply this to subject content as well, rather than just dialogue and perceptions. What are the salient points the reader is to take away in your description of a scene?

I find that varied use of words and language really breaks up creativity constipation.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I get this. My solution is to write the 'good bits' that I really want to get to, and then that will clarify what is needed to get there.

For example I'm terrible at writing arguments and unpleasant tension, so in my last series I skipped to writing the scenes afterwards. Once I'd edited a bit it became clear all I needed was a few paragraphs of one guy's thought processes and going to get very drunk - and a dramatic argument wouldn't have been in character for either guy.

Alternatively I just put my characters on the sofa and let them decide on what TV to watch etc. It tends to yield insights into my characters even if most of the scene gets edited out again - but worth it for a few lines that reveal their personalities.

Sometimes giving up on writing and instead reading for a bit gets me back in the mood.

 

[yowser]

The world does not need another Hot-Wife/Poker story.

Of course it does. It just needs to be one with a twist or something unique, a cliche-tweaking plot, some humor, something out of character. to make you smile or scratch your head.

The only reason I ever wrote one....

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Welcome to the wide world of writing. I fully understand where you’re at. Sometimes I email/PM other people and run through the issues, which can help. Sometimes I park that story and work on something else. Sometimes I’m completely boxed in and can’t resolve the issue.

This, this and all of this.

As an experiment, how about simply deleting that one character and reread it? Gaps in the plot should be clearly apparent, leading to an understanding of what part (vs rôle) he or she plays.

Good luck.

 

[Emirus]

I am a relatively new author, and I am just stuck.........Can anyone help me get unstuck? I suspect that I just need the falling pebble that will start the avalanche down the hill. I just can’t find it.

Take a step back from the story. If you’ve got an idea for another story start writing that one. Go and do some gardening or decorating. Maybe even read some of the stories on here. The ones you think are better than your work aspire to and the ones you think are crap compared with yours give yourself a pat on the back. All of a sudden your mind will drop into gear and you will be off again. Constantly thinking about it doesn’t help, won’t help, and the problem will fester.

I’ve looked you up and there isn’t a problem anyway because your next story isn’t due until 2025. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about that’s a joke!

 

[SaintCordelia]

It's the nature of being a writer and possibly requiring multiple drafts on a story to get the story where you want it to be. I hit five or six drafts per story before I am happy with it. I also have several stories going at once, so when I'm tapped out of inspiration or creativity on one, I can jump to the next, and circle back around when I am ready. It ensures I don't get down in the weeds for too long on a single story. Sometimes it takes writing something else to figure out what you need to fix on the first.

 

[Thefireflies]

There were a couple of threads about two different approaches to writing a story, the plotters versus pantsers:
http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1501141&highlight=pantser
http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1501269&highlight=pantser
Plotters generate an outline of where there story should go, a basic plot if you will, while Pantsers write by the seat of their pants, using minimal planning, making it up on the fly.

I’d consider myself mostly a pantser, but I can see a time when plotting is necessary, especially when a story is stuck. I have a number of stories parked, as everyone says, going nowhere in particular, for various reasons, though I’m sure if I spent a little time formulating a plot, I could get them moving again, hoping the story reignites in my imagination.

One thing that may help is taking something from real life, a situation perhaps, and think about what if a different decision was made or path taken. See where that takes your story? Have a character do something out of character or make a bad decision, see how they deal with the consequences of their actions. Even if you end up with a dead end or don’t like where your story went, you are likely to have a few pages of story that you can cannibalise for parts as needed.

 

[SisterJezabel]

I'm a pantser too, but I spend a lot of time editing these days, often cutting out entire sections.

Starting a new story the other day I'm 1500 words+ in and I've decided to start the story again at the current plot point. I'll move the chopped part to the following page by putting in a page break, starting again and maybe, but probably not including the material from that already written. It will probably be disregarded in a few days.

 

[Mal_Bey]

Thanks to everyone for all your help and support. I’m still working the problem (pondering character details, and debating if the challenging opening structure that I like is mucking me up more than I want to concede), but want to thank all of you for being welcoming to the newbie. I’ve been around the internet block long enough to appreciate a warm community group. It is hard to build and easy to let decay. You all seem to have built the community well, and should be proud of that. You may see me around here more.

@Emerius : <chuckles> Yes, I know I am never going to be in the running for the Asimov/King award for literary production rate. If the urge to write is a well-spring, I drip. I know others out there have fire hydrants of urge, but I tend to save up and then go. So even though at my current pace of a story every five years, I was starting to feel I was going to spend way too long staring at this cast do nothing, and so asked for help.

@Thefireflies and @SisterJezabel: I am somewhere between a plotter and a pantser. In many ways, doing my last story as a re-imagining of another’s story was great for me. They provided me with a working plot setup, and I was able to spend my energy pantsing. I can’t go full pantsing normally because without good plotting, I get too easily sucked into the “Rabbithole of Awful Writting.” All writers go there eventually. Some keep a second home there even. But as a low productivity writer, it is too expensive to realize the past 20 pages are just unredeemable pointless crap. I just need to keep away if I can through plotting. Failing to hit the balance between plotting and pantsing though is what caused me to start this thread. I have the plotting done. I doubt when I finally publish I will have deviated significantly from my current plot points. But the pantsing just isn’t starting for me on this story. If it were a film, the screenplay is done, the actors hired, and we are just sitting around the rehearsal table staring at each other.

@yowser: I think we are in near total agreement. It is a story I have had my eye passively looking out for for years. But I also feel the gap between doing the Hot-Wife/Poker story worth doing and doing the screenplay for the X-rated remake of “Rounders” Hollywood keeps calling for is so narrow, you may as well aim for Hollywood. I’m not that good yet. B-)

@Sextified: How did you multiquote in your reply? Sorry for the forum technical exotica, but this reply would have been formatted more like yours instead of the at-syntax I doubt is going to work properly if I saw how to do multiquoting properly. I suspect tagging, but…

Again, thanks to all for your help!

 

[Sextified]

@Sextified: How did you multiquote in your reply? Sorry for the forum technical exotica, but this reply would have been formatted more like yours instead of the at-syntax I doubt is going to work properly if I saw how to do multiquoting properly. I suspect tagging, but…

Again, thanks to all for your help!

Just old fashioned 'cut and paste' I'm afraid. I just use the quote button, delete what I don't want to appear, add some extra line breaks, copy the front quote brackets, paste in the front of the quotes, copy the back, paste in place at the back of the quotes, then add my words in-between. I make sure that I do a preview before posting, to make sure it works.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

@MalBey re "how do you multi-quote"

The button will look a little different depending on which theme you're using.
Next to the larger "quote" button will be a smaller button that may have a plus (+) sign in it, and a quotation Mark (").
Tap that button for each response you want to quote, and then tap "post reply".
When the text box opens to make your comment, it should have all the comments you selected with the header saying who originally wrote it.
Then you just type your comment between the quoted sections.


(I figured it out by stumbling around)

 

[karaline]

I think I've run into this problem at some point in almost every story i've written, there is always at least one chapter/scene that i struggle to get down. in fact initially, it was sex scenes that i found hard. my coping mechanisms are as follows

i) consider carefully if it needs to be included
ii) write around it (write the bits i'm more interested in)
and finally iii) if i feel it really needs to be in there i will push through, just sit down and make myself write until it was done, which is always excrutiating and time consuming, but when i look back later the scenes don't seem to stand out as particularly bad or anything so...

 

[gunhilltrain]

Mal_Bey: I'm been trying to think of the pebble to get you moving, but it's surprisingly hard to describe exactly how writing works.

I've had incomplete stories that have been dormant for a while, but usually I get back to them eventually. Give it another read through and try it again. There should be something about the characters, the situation, or the setting that will catch on. Why are they there in the first place? For one series I did, it took months before I went beyond the first chapter, then it just started to flow. It was a fairly straight-forward idea, I guess: the meeting of two students who go to different colleges but live in the same apartment building.

One thing I keep in mind: there are some older stories that I've looked at and I was dissatisfied with them. So I just rewrote them and published them on other sites, or republished them here with different titles. So far, no one has noticed the latter! Sometimes sequels come to mind long after the original was done.

 

[AllTheBetterNamesWereTaken]

If it ain't working, then I'm suspicious you have the wrong characters, or the wrong situation.

By which I mean....
Not all characters force a story into motion. I have a story I *really* want to write, but the main character is depressive, and there's nothing in the situation to push her into moving, so every time I write she just sort of... drifts around?

So I write a different story instead.
I just keep lining up different stories, and if I find something that matches, something that will get *that* character (who I love) to start moving again, then I'll swing back to it. But right now she isn't moving, so I leave her be.