Asked and answered, mi amiga.

[megwrites]

A question from the inestimable, inimitable ladyslvr in this entry: So, those of you who are writers, could you please take an entry to talk about overcoming hurdles within your stories. Not writer's block hurdles, but story ones. How do you recover the plot thread when it breaks?

I think it's a good question, and I'm passing it on to my f-list. Why not take an entry to discuss your process?



I think writing a story is like being both the critters and the two kids from the Hansel and Gretel story. You lay down the bread crumbs, and then you eat them all up. But since nothing about being a writer goes in perfect order, sometimes you find that you've eaten yourself out of bread crumbs before you get home.

Wow, I wish I had some breadcrumbs to lead me back home from that metaphor.

Anyway. Sometimes you get lost in the story you're telling. You know you were going somewhere with it, but damned if you can tell where. I've had this happen. A lot actually, which was why I started taking pretty thorough notes when I outlined a project and making sure I jotted down all the nifty things in my head, even if I didn't know where they went or why they were there.

But notes don't always work, and sometimes you just lose the story. When this happens to me, I start by just re-reading the story I have written so far. Sometimes the thread becomes apparent once I've started from the beginning. Sometimes something strikes me in my own writing and I can pick it up again.

This is about a 40/60 shot, though. And about 60% of the time, it doesn't do much for me.

If it didn't, depending on how recently I was last working on it, I'll go back to the last place where I felt certain of the story and start asking some hard questions about why it goes downhill from there.

That tends to work for me, because, left to my own devices, I write myself into a corner the first few times out. Or more accurately, I write myself out of a story. I find that I took an obvious path, or that I rode the wrong horse in and another character is actually where it's at.

But this sometimes doesn't work.

So I do the equivalent of taking a pause when I've entered a room and saying, "Okay, what did we come in here for? We came in here for a reason! Think!"

I have to do this quite often in real life, by the way. So for those reading this who might have done it and feel old because of that, don't. I'm 24, and I forget so much crap in a day it's not funny.

But I digress.

When I find myself doing that in a writing sense, and nothing else has helped, I set the story aside for a moment and get out some scratch paper (or open a clean document in OpenOffice).

With a completely blank slate, I start doing two things. First and foremost, I list what it is I'm certain that I know about this story. Sometimes all I know is that at the end of the story, a certain character is going to die. Or I know that the story is about intelligent spaceships who form a cabal to prevent their masters from going to war and making them kill each other (I'm still on the drawing board for that one). I don't know anything else, but I know that. After I list what I know, I list what I want. Maybe I want the spaceships to named after Greek heroes. Maybe I want there to be a romance. Maybe I want for there to be a theme about honor in the story.

If we go back to my Hansel and Gretel metaphor, this is like doubling back and marking the trees you know you've passed with bright orange paint. It doesn't get you home, but it gives you a fixed point to work from. It's also an insurance policy should this happen again.

Oh, and if for some reason the certainties of the story do change drastically or my certainties become very uncertain, it's a good sign that I'm writing two different stories and something needs to be split up, lopped off, or otherwise rearranged.

The point of all this listing is to rebuild half of what I've lost. I make sure the foundation is solid, and I start rebuilding my house.

After I have a firm grip on the core of the story (if not the details), then I look at where I've stopped, or the last part of my story where I was certain of what I was doing, and I start listing all the possible things that could happen. I start moving the furniture around, putting random splotches of paint on the wall to see what best gets things underway, keeping my list of certainties and wants in mind.

Could I follow Character B around for a while? Could I switch a good guy to a bad guy? Could I move an event later down the line? Is it necessary to have something starting?

One thing that helps me a lot, in general, to ask if I've started the story at the right point. Did I start the story too early? Too late? Are there events I can leave "off screen" (so to speak) and just refer to?

Most times, I stop when I find something that excites me or reminds me of what I was after the first time, or just seems right.

If I'm still lost after that, I take 20mg of Fukitol and start from the beginning all over again, using whatever I can salvage from the first draft. This has happened to me before, and while it's heartbreaking, it's often for the best.


So there, ladyslvr, I hope my long rambling and needless metaphors have helped you or at least made you feel better about yourself in comparison. Because, hey, what are friends for if not to make you warm, tingly superior feeling?