The story I'm not quite working on, also being the story that is not quite working.
I've had the idea for the story hanging around in my head for a while. I like to let ideas sit and incubate in the back of my mind a good while to make sure I've got the plotline all worked out before I begin writing. It's getting to be about time for this story to come out of the incubator and hatch, except for one problem. This story is a twin, and it's dear brother is rather disrespectful and unruly towards it's mother. In other words, I can't get the darn thing to do what I want it to do.
For a very long time, I've wanted to do a story about someone who has lost their memory, and spends the story figuring out who they and were they're from. The idea's a bit cliche perhaps, and I was always waiting for that right inspiration to come along and turn the idea into something more unique and something I could get excited about. One day I was rolling the idea around in my head, and a couple of ideas came together in just the right way. Suddenly, everything fell into place, and I knew what I wanted to write about.
I started working out ideas: characters he could meet and get clues from, places he could travel to while following the clues; until all that was really left was the big reveal at the end. Once I came up with that, I could write the story.
The problem is, once I started working that part out, a bad guy showed up. I realized, dismayed, that once the hero had regained his memories, he'd have a bad guy to track down and take out. That was a whole other story. With one story's worth of plot already worked out, and another story's worth in chasing a badguy, I realized I could either: have the hero regain his memories sooner, cutting out most of what I had planned so that I could cut to the chase sooner, and squeeze it all into one story; or I could keep what I had and write a sequel to deal with the badguy. I decided I'd rather write the story in two parts.
I have enough to start writing Part One, but whenever I try to work out Part Two I hit a rather stubborn writers' block. Part of me wants to go ahead and start writing Part One, hoping that will get my creative juices flowing, while another part of me is afraid I may never work out Part Two, and Part One will be all written out and sitting there all by it's lonesome self with no one for company.
Part of me wants to just throw up my hands and go draw a picture, instead.
The two things that have worked for me so far:
ReplyDeleteI've found the best way to get past writer's block is to sit down, suck it up and write. Even if it's silly and I KNOW I won't be able to put it in the final draft. If that means I have to write a scene where my main character learns she can turn the bath faucet on and off with her toes, so be it. If it means my main character walks into her bedroom and discovers a squirrel made its way in through the half-open window and has to deal with the ensuing chaos, so be it (I actually did this one with an older story. It was fun). Most of the time, when I stop stressing about writing one certain thing and let myself write another, the blocked part unlocks and I typically learn more about my characters in the process.
The second thing is, I take a tape recorder everywhere I go. I started doing it because of work, but then I noticed that I tend to brainstorm while I drive. With the tape recorder, if inspiration hits, I can whip it out of my purse, yammer for five minutes, and then type it out when I get home.