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Post by leepoutine on Jul 4, 2013 10:20:15 GMT -5
What do you do when you can't seem to get your butt writing? I am having a slow day so far and I can't afford to.
- Lee
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Post by gitchel on Jul 4, 2013 10:49:46 GMT -5
I'll let you know when I figure it out myself ;-)
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Post by leepoutine on Jul 4, 2013 10:52:43 GMT -5
Well, what I did was get away from the computer and go for a walk. I walked a bit down the street and then came home. I decided where I wanted to go next with the book. So here is what worked - get away - take a shower, go for a walk, go do something else.
- Lee
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Post by aquarose on Jul 4, 2013 14:31:10 GMT -5
I write backstory or change to another POV character even though I probably won't use it. It seems some of this background is needed for me to kickstart my writing.
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Post by mllersil on Jul 4, 2013 14:45:46 GMT -5
Thinking up something completely crazy works for me. For example, the main character's parrot suddenly starts asking strange questions, something hairy lurking around the corner, a phone call from a dead aunt or an unexpected wasteland behind the kitchen door. Nothing of this will ever see the daylight of my story, but I have something to write and more often than not one or two really good plot ideas come out of it.
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Post by Bird on Jul 5, 2013 2:17:18 GMT -5
I don't know about anyone else, but sometimes it helps me to just open a new document and start sort of thinking out loud - in type. I brainstorm about what can/could/should/will happen in what I'm writing and how I might go about making it happen. I guess it's sort of using the blank space as a sounding board. Toss a bunch of ideas on it and see what sticks. And if I am really and truly stuck, sometimes I just write about what kind of day it was or what I can see out the window. It doesn't matter as long as I'm typing, and some of those meanderings have made their ways into the final cut.
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Post by r.elena.t on Jul 7, 2013 13:36:05 GMT -5
Two things.
1) Write just a little - total nonsense or not - and then go for a walk. (Harder for me to do in summer as I am most emphatically not a heat-adapted organism). I'll often find the words pile up as I walk & I can return to a solid writing stint.
2) Let my characters speak. Just write however many pages of useless dialog ("You want to open the door?" "No I don't want to open the door. You open the door." "I don't want to open the door," etc.) Not with character names or even quote marks, just line after line of silly talk. Sooner or later, they'll talk me into new action.
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Post by mllersil on Jul 7, 2013 15:28:34 GMT -5
2) Let my characters speak. Just write however many pages of useless dialog ("You want to open the door?" "No I don't want to open the door. You open the door." " I don't want to open the door," etc.) Not with character names or even quote marks, just line after line of silly talk. Sooner or later, they'll talk me into new action. Hey, I tried that one today and it really worked! After three quarters of the page filled with pointless dialogue I just had to tear open a random door and introduce a guy holding a rabid frog who accidentally bit one of the dialogue victims. The insanity that followed was priceless. Sadly, no story material gained, but boy, had I fun.  |
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Post by r.elena.t on Jul 7, 2013 21:48:57 GMT -5
Ooooo, mllersil. Wish I'd been... uh, no. Changed my mind. Rabid frog? Not my cuppa.  |
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Post by limey on Jul 9, 2013 3:36:16 GMT -5
Yes, long conversations really work. Once I was stuck so decided to take all the main characters out for a curry - they each chose what they wanted from the menu, then discussed their ambitions and where they hoped they would be in ten years' time. All deleted later, of course, but it was a good way of getting to know my characters better - almost as if I'd gone out for a meal with them myself!
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Post by mllersil on Aug 14, 2013 10:06:26 GMT -5
Just wanted to share this experience. I met a dead end. Again. And remembered your advice to just keep the characters talking. There was only one character in this scene, alone in the woods, so I had him talking to the author. (Though I never answered. It was kind of one-sided.) And during the next two pages I learned so much about this one character, I nearly couldn't believe it. Call me crazy, but it really felt like getting to know a real person. I don't know about you, but this is not the usual way for me to invent characters. Interesting though. Spooky, but interesting. Anyone ever had such a moment, too? |
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Post by boomboom on Aug 14, 2013 13:52:55 GMT -5
Yes, that was one of the ways I met my word count. I wrote a long, internal monologue with a character and I am sure it opened up my finding the story and made the world finally come alive for me. It didn't come during the monologue, but giving this person a voice made him real and thus fertile ground where the other ideas finally grew.
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Post by gitchel on Aug 15, 2013 10:56:38 GMT -5
My next step - in order to comply with the popular advice that my antagonist and protagonist be alike in some significant aspect - is to launch my scriptwriting software and craft a (disposable) dialog between them where they argue their differences and similarities. Never triedthis before, but it should go far toward fleshing them out for the novel.
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Post by r.elena.t on Aug 17, 2013 10:22:25 GMT -5
This happens for me a lot. In fact, most of my character development consists of them chatting to me about whatever. Unfortunately often happens while driving...  |
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Post by Lib on Sept 12, 2013 12:41:30 GMT -5
I'll go with the previous posters and say talking to/with the characters often helps. Sometimes characters will tell me things I've overlooked.
Alternately, I will explain the story, usually out loud, to some imaginary character. (Yes, I still have imaginary friends!) I don't do that when anyone else is around, but it works.
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Apr 5, 2014 15:34:13 GMT -5
Apr 5, 2014 15:34:13 GMT -5
Now, where did I leave off at?
May 5, 2014 0:43:57 GMT -5
May 5, 2014 0:43:57 GMT -5
My latest edition of Straight From Thecliff Chamber thecliffchamber.com/TIGERS_2014.htm
Aug 10, 2014 21:59:22 GMT -5
My latest edition of Straight From Thecliff Chamber thecliffchamber.com/TIGERS_2014.htm
Aug 10, 2014 21:59:22 GMT -5
Aug 31, 2014 12:11:50 GMT -5
Aug 31, 2014 12:11:50 GMT -5