The Writing Life: When the Story Stalls

[e_moon60]

Sometimes a book stalls because the writer's done something that derailed it, or didn't do something to keep it going.  I experience stall-effect in the middle of almost every book, so now I expect it (hope it won't appear, but am not panicky when it does.)  Doesn't mean I've lost my talent, can't write again, have utterly failed, etc, etc.  It's a

Comments

[seekerval]

Writers create their own paddles and sails...

That is a great reminder for any time in the future when I get stuck in the "now what?" syndrome. Thanks.

And Thank You for sharing this peek into the process of an accomplished and talented writer.

[e_moon60]

Glad you found it useful. It was years before I realized that it was even possible to make up my own tools (some excellent, but fierce, English teachers had me convinced that school handed out the tools, like boxes of crayons, and those were the only tools/colors available. Tree trunks brown, leaves green.) You begin to develop advanced tools by reading a lot of books--books of different kinds, by many different writers. Their use of the tools seep into your brain--the seeds that can grow if you feed them--and feeding them means using them. This is why young writers are derivative--and need to be--in their early work. It's OK to write like the writer you fell in love with last...but then read another writer, and another.

[blueeowyn]

I too second the thanks for the process piece. I love how you can tie so many different arenas of thought into a single imagery. May the Plot Daemon proceed at a pace that your fingers can keep up with.

[geekmerc]

And so you successfully remind me that I should quit obsessing over which tool to choose for my project and just plunge ahead and use one. If I must rework it part way through because the tool is limited, then so be it.

[e_moon60]

Sometimes the tool you think is the right one isn't--although that eases up with experience (and a bigger toolkit.) But defining the problem in what I might call operational terms--is it that transport is bogged down in mud, or there aren't enough drivers, or not enough loaders, or it's bringing the wrong stuff--can help clarify the fix needed. I read a fair bit of "failure analysis" across a range of activities (comes from my mother, that itch to know how things fail and why failure wasn't anticipated) and that often helps me pinpoint what the problem is in the book at hand. In writing, there are multiple paths to use in the analysis. I suspect every writer uses a slightly different approach (and may not even be aware of what they're using) but in my experience and observation of others' process, it always involves some tinkering...hanging things on the mobile, wiggly shape of the not-yet-jelled story and seeing what works. Sometimes you can do that mentally ("Oh--if A just didn't find out about R until AFTER the conversation

[geekmerc]

It's the same in Network Engineering and Server Administration. The author of the tools you use had their own ideas. You have to attempt to find a tool that fits closely with the image you have in your head for the eventual outcome. Sometimes you have to build your own tools or modify those of others (thanks to the Open Source Software movement). Overall, spending a full day of research isn't that bad. Now it's time to just grab one and try it out.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I've always considered all forms of creation (not to be confused with copying) to be art. There is the image in your head that forms the premise. You might build a loose outline of how things will work. Then you start at the beginning. As you slowly work on it, you find that things just want to work a certain way. It takes on a life of its own. I don't really think it matters if you are building a house, writing a program, building a network, composing a song, painting a picture, or writing a book.

[ext_1670279]

In software we have teams - some folk are great at getting the bare bones of a solution together quickly, others are good at detail and user interfaces - authors have to do all the parts - always amazed at that!

[pameladean]

Pocketa-queep!

Thanks so much for this; it's very timely and may stifle the queeping of my own project.

P.

[dacuteturtle]

I hate to say "me too" (because those are boring responses), but "me too." I know those issues well. My mid-draft stalls are now entirely predictable.

After my first draft, I do a revision draft just to straighten out all the innovations that get me out of my story stalls. That's also where I cut my steadfastly plastic characters and I catch up with the characters who keep innovating. I do sometimes go backwards while drafting, but that's only if I really need to remember to put something in. (I forget plot points like a sieve.)

[e_moon60]

I forget names. I forget names in real life, too. One reason the Vatta universe includes cranial implants that pop up identities when you need them is my own moderate face blindness and associated difficulty with names. Hence, the "name file" for every group of books. It's embarrassing how many times I have to look up the same name, even when the person appeared in the chapter before last. Ship names, planet names, names of continents, cities, etc, etc. If I forget to put one in the name file when I first come up with it, woe is me if I need it again later