Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Have you ever stalled on a story?

This is topic Have you ever stalled on a story? in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by BethBrownell (Member # 7981) on :

I have.

I am currently rereading the chapter to see if there was a place where the story went off course. Hopefully, it is not something within the story itself, it might be that I don't know what to write for the next sentence or something like that.

So what did you do to get your story rolling again?

Beth

[This message has been edited by BethBrownell (edited July 22, 2008).]

Posted by AWSullivan (Member # 8059) on :

Hey Beth,

I stalled pretty hard on a novel I was writing and the only thing that got me back on track was sitting down and writing ABOUT my characters. Adding to their back story and family tree and what not.

This gets me thinking about who my characters are and how important they are to the story. This ultimately led to me chopping a couple useless characters that I had been keeping on life support for a couple chapters as well as exposed a completely out of character choice that I had forced on the character.

In the end I had a better story and I was rolling again.

Hope this helps.

Anthony

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Another thing you can try is picking a different part of the story. You don't have to write the story in the order in which it will be read. If you know about something that happens later in the story, write about that, and come back to the beginning afterwards. Write the ending first. Write whatever part of the story is clear to you and ready to be written.

Posted by AWSullivan (Member # 8059) on :

quote:
Another thing you can try is picking a different part of the story. You don't have to write the story in the order in which it will be read. If you know about something that happens later in the story, write about that, and come back to the beginning afterwards. Write the ending first. Write whatever part of the story is clear to you and ready to be written.

This is a great idea! (Not that you needed to be told that.

By writing parts of the story that follow the area you are stuck in, you might descover things about your characters or about where they end up that helps you workout that block you have on the earlier scene.

Brilliant!

Anthony

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

quote:
By writing parts of the story that follow the area you are stuck in, you might descover things about your characters or about where they end up that helps you workout that block you have on the earlier scene.

I had (well, have since I haven't finished this particular story, but it's on a back burner right now) a problem with one story where I knew how I wanted the story to end, had a strong idea of where it started, but I wasn't sure how to get to the ending I had in mind.

Someone in my real-life (you know, as opposed to you guys, LOL) writer's group suggested that I "write the sequel."

Fascinating concept. Take my story ending, make it the start of ANOTHER story, and run forward from there. I haven't done it yet, but it's cooking back there on the back burner with the rest of that story for when I come up for air next and have time to work on it. I'm excited.

Posted by satate (Member # 8082) on :

When that happens to me, it's because I haven't had any time to just think about what happens next. Then I have to lay down on my bed and think until I know. When I hit on it then I'm excited and I have to go and write it immediately.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Plenty of times. Usually it dies in the middle, or sometimes right at the beginning, and I just can't get it to go on from there.

Other times, other stories attract my attention and I just don't get back to it for awhile. (I've got a novel that fits right in this category---not unprecedented, since it happened with my last two finished novels.)

Posted by BethBrownell (Member # 7981) on :

Thanks guys.

I did what some of you suggested and worked on other parts of the story and finished the rewriting of the story and drifted back to the part that I had stalled on and wrote a few lines before I headed off to bed before I decided to become like my older brother a night owl and sleep during the day.

But the stall has been broken and I should be finishing the chapter within the day or two. Then, the book is off to my editor for editing/grammar/sentence flow/plot flow and adding any sentences that seemed to have been incomplete on the first rewrite of the story, which I am known to do at times. Then, my second time over the story before I send it back to her and have her check it over again before returning it to me. Then, I send the book over to an author friend who wants to read it and help me search for a good agent for my book.

Beth

Posted by Rhaythe (Member # 7857) on :

I'm actually stalled right now. Luckily for me, I do all of my writing in hardback paper journals, so when I hit this point, I make it a point to transcribe what I've written onto the computer, sorta beginning a minor editing phase while I'm writing. The advantage being I can alter what I've written slightly as I'm going and get refreshed on the story at the same time.

It happened once before, and I needed to chop five chapters off the block, but it helped rekindle the storyline for me. I prefer to do as much of my writing as I can away from the computer, but it does need to get on there at some point, so this has been an effective way for me.

Posted by BethBrownell (Member # 7981) on :

Rhaythe, that might be a good thing, as sometimes when I do not have my computer or a laptop in my hands and I get a story idea or an idea for the story to write it down by hand and transcribe it onto my computer when I get back to it and for the most part what I wrote down is a little different then what I had hand wrote previously.

That does help revive a stalled story as does rereading the entire story. My current story has been revived with a little addition of a scene in an earlier chapter.

Beth

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Another thing you can try is to open a new, blank document and start writing your story again without referring to the current draft (or any of the drafts). Just write it from memory.

You may find some interesting things about this new version:

1--If you've been working on the thing for a long time, your writing may have had time to improve enough that this version may be better than the rewrites.

2--This new version may actually be fresher than the rewrites as well, because it hasn't been tweaked to death.

3--You may be able to get rid of a lot of extraneous stuff because you are remembering only the "good parts."

4--As you go along, you may rediscover what excited you about the story in the first place, and be able to move past what was stalling you before.

Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :

Hah. I just did more than stalled. I deleted (unrecoverably it seems after quite a bit of trying) a short story I was 4,000 words into. I'd consider that a -- what's the next step up from a stall?