I’ve been teaching a night class at the local community college about writing fiction with the intent to someday be published. Not teaching how to write, but exposing new writers to the concepts, lessons, rules, and “secrets” that, if I’d known them 20 years ago, would have saved me hundreds of hours of editing, rewriting, and embarrassment.
As I was going through my carefully curated PowerPoint, one of my students asked if I ever got stuck and couldn’t write any more. That question led to a major digression, which ended up being a good thing.
We talked about walking down our Main Street, which has all kinds of strange and interesting architectural details that we never even notice if we don’t intentionally look. And what about the second and third stories of those buildings with the dark windows? What might have happened, or could be happening now, behind that impenetrable glass?
The smells of a BBQ wafting from down the street, along with the joyous (or not so much) cries from children at the party—What is the event, and what are the attendees thinking as they sit and sip their drinks and watch each other?
Driving down a mountain road and spying an old cabin falling apart, and wondering who built it and where they went in life, where their family is now, and what might have taken place within those termite-ridden log walls a century ago?
A fancy party dress at a used-clothing store with the store tag still attached. Who bought it, and why was it never worn?
These seemingly random things can be interpreted, or written, in so many different ways.
I have a huge file of “spare parts” on my computer. The parts are moments in time where I saw, felt, heard, or experienced something that I thought I could use someday in my writing. Several of those things have been the basis for scenes, or short stories, and even for book one of my Bad Carma series.
Do you get stuck writing? What do you do when it happens? Do you squirrel away moments from your life, or others, for use in your writing?
Hi, Terri! Nice images you’ve saved, all good candidates for a story. My very first novel never saw the light of day. It won several awards, and one exciting but ultimately disappointing long look from a major publisher, and I may some day give it another look–or not. I liked the storyline and the way it ended, and I saw wonderful possibilities for a sequel. At that time, I was a pantser–hadn’t plotted to the end.
I got to Chapter 14 and hit a brick wall. I could not see past all that had happened to find a satisfying ending! I was stuck, all right. I consulted my critique group, and they produced several ideas, but none of them worked for me. The first novel is completed and the second one is forever frozen in time in Chapter 14.
I can’t say I never had to stop for a bit to work out what corner I’d written myself into, or who was where they shouldn’t be. Usually, when that happens, I have to spend a lot of alone time at the gym, or a long soak, or a hike to think through what I could have done/should have done to get it fixed. I’ve always managed to finish the stories, but I have many that will likely never see the light of day. Thanks, Janet!
Do the busy work of writing – like writing a chapter by chapter outline of what I already have so I can figure out what I’m missing.