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Suppose that your current WIP feels a little…*ahem* stale? And suppose that you are having difficulty coming up with an interesting new idea, but nothing unique comes to mind.
What is a person in this particular situation to do?? O-o
I suggest writing a little blurb about an existential crisis.
I have no idea what that does, but it’s what I do when I have writers block and feel like writing something…different.
To date I can’t see as it’s ever really solved the problem, but it’s a good way to work out themes, and ideas and stuff that might be floating around in your head.
I mean, the park is pretty open with existential crisis’s…
Make something blow up or someone die. Add a few plot twists. What’s the plot of the story? Maybe we can help with the plot twists.
Hm… never been in that situation before, but if all you’re wanting is inspiration, I might have a suggestion. What genre is your novel? What are some of the key story elements? Dragons? Ships? Space Shuttles? Turtles? 😉
Anyway, I’ve not tried this myself, but I imagine it would work. Do a Google search for writing prompts with dragons or turtles or whatever. Look at each picture and see each unique element and ask yourself ‘what’s going on there? Is there an idea in that picture? Would the idea be compatible with my story? How can I weave some of these cool things into my WIP?’
Hey, it’s worth a shot…@Ezra, hmm… I’ve never tried that before. Sounds like an interesting way to get rid of writer’s block! I might try it!
@Rosey, haha!! Well, that would certainly add some excitement. There is supposed to be some kind of showdown-blowout like that near the end, but I haven’t reached that part yet. You can read my little blurb here… It’s an old post from when I first started planning, so forgive me if it looks&sounds like *bleh*. Lol! 😛
@Kate, Oh, goodness… I don’t really know how to sort the old thing into a genre? haha! The whole thing is just a big, weird experiment, to be honest. It’s a modern-day, coming-of-age, sorta Sci-Fi Mystery. (Ugh.. What a monstrosity! What have I created? O-o ) But your idea might help. I’ll try & see.
Out of curiosity, do any of you write your story in parts? Like, doing scenes instead of chapters? I’m wondering if that will help… I find that with this WIP, I’m wanting to write certain scenes more than others, and getting bogged down in the chapters leading up to the “exciting” ones. (Hoping that makes some sense.)
Doesn’t look that bad, actually. How far are you through it? What part got you bored? Please, tell us what is boring so we may give it a makeover.
The part that I think I’d have fun writing would be the whole disappearing thing. It’s not a curse and she gets captured or something, right? Just follow the logical progression of the story and find some part to do a complete u turn and go in the opposite story direction.Serious, veeerrry serious. Well, you’ve come to the right place.
My diagnosis confirms that you have a very serious malady. To use a very long medical sounding latin term, you don’t like parts of your story. The fact of the matter is, you should love your story more than anyone else in the whole world.
Now if I were to guess why you like some parts, I would say it is because they are really going to be/already are amazing. Likewise, if I were to guess why you don’t like some parts, I would say it is because they are not amazing, and therefore you despair of them being great. You are probably just trying to get through those portions as fast as you can, but you actually end up taking the most time with them because you find them boring.
Solution!: You’re doing the right thing in keeping your focus on the really exciting parts, but your doing it in the wrong way. You are focused on getting to the exciting parts. You should be focused on planing for the exciting parts. If the exciting part is really sad, make the interim very joyful for contrast. If your climax is a great battle scene in which your MC gets in a desperate fight, but ends up wining against odds, show him in the interim practicing his swordsmanship. Show how he made mistake after mistake, but kept trying. Show how his trainer picked out his greatest weakness and made him hammer at it until he overcame it. Make that the reason he won the battle. There are so many different approaches, and the ones you choose are a way of expressing your own uniqueness. The point is just to think this way. Your slow parts are where you get to build up for your big “pow!”. They are exciting because they will make your climaxes more exciting.
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Okay, @Rosey & @Daeus, that actually makes sense… The point is, I should be writing what I enjoy reading, and making every part of the story count. (I’ve always read about those two tips, but never really experienced the issue. Now I get it! lol!) I’m looking at it with a different perspective now!
Thanks, guys! I’ll let you know if I hit any more road blocks. (Or success!) 🙂 <3
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