5 Strategies for Getting Unstuck While Writing
In today's episode, I'm sharing my five favorite strategies for getting unstuck while writing. Here's a preview of what's included:
[01:30] If you need help pushing past the first few pages of your novel, I have a brand new workshop just for you! It's called How to Hook Readers in Your First Five Pages. Click here to learn more about the workshop or to enroll for $47.
[02:00] Strategy #1: Zoom out and look at the big picture of your story before making any micro-level changes. Answer these three questions: What's your story's main genre? What does your protagonist want and need? What's the theme of your story?
[05:25] Strategy #2: Look at the obligatory scenes and conventions of your genre for inspiration and guidance. These will help you flesh out your story and make sure it’s well structured.
[07:20] Strategy #3: Consider what kind of subplots you already have in your story and/or what kind of subplots you might want to add in. Use the obligatory scenes and conventions of your subgenre to flesh these out.
[08:35] Strategy #4:Create a flexible outline for your story that you can use as a place to explore new ideas or to capture changes you want to make to scenes you’ve already written. Update it as you go.
[10:25] Strategy #5: Evaluate the narrative drive in your existing scenes. Does each scene lead into or cause the next scene to happen in a logical way?
[12:00] Key points and episode recap.
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Links mentioned in this episode:
- Understanding genre: How to write stories that work (podcast and article)
- 5 questions to help you write better characters (podcast and article)
- 3 ways to uncover the theme of your story (podcast and article)
- Conventions vs. tropes: What's the difference? (podcast and article)
- 3 ways to create narrative drive in your story (podcast and article)
- 5 things that kill narrative drive (and how to fix it) (podcast and article)
P.S. Did you know that I have a Facebook group just for fiction writers? In this private group, we talk about all things writing, editing, and publishing fiction. It's free to join and you can request access here. Hope to see you there!