A little something for the forum posters

All right, I’m going to delve into something here that should be pretty self explanatory for the majority of those people who’re seasoned in what they do, so you’ll have to forgive my indulgence ... for a little while, at least.

Don’t worry though, I’m not going to preach. I’ll only be here for a short while, in the hope someone, somewhere, maybe able to relate to what I am about to say.

I’ve read about so many people recently that have started to write or are writing the next (dare I say it?) big thing. Yes, in their eye’s they’re the next bestselling author. We’ve all been there, don’t pretend we haven’t, and yet these people continually bemoan the fact that they cannot finish what they’re writing, that they have hit a wall, or that something just isn’t right somewhere along the creative line.

Usually, what I find when I ask the questions is that people have either walked away from a story for a while, started other projects, or had their muse shit on their head with some other big idea that, at that point, seemed too good to turn away. My advice is always the same: don’t! Never walk away from a story. Keep at it, keep pounding those words out until you have something of a finished article.

I say this because you’re apt to lose the impetus, and somewhere along the line you’ll forget everything you may have had swimming around in your head up until that point. It sounds easy to get back into things, but if you leave them to gather dust over a long period of time then you will lose your way. Maybe not for everyone, but for most it will happen.

If you have more than one story floating around your head, keep thinking about it because the chances are, over time, you will have more of an idea how that story will progress. Jot something down if you have to, but don’t forgo what you’re already working on to finish the phantom of an idea that’s suddenly struck you. If you do, and I have been guilty of this myself from time to time, you will invariably start with an opener, a scene, a seed of an idea, and, after you’ve run through the first couple of chapters, not a lot else. So sit on it. If it’s a good idea it’ll hang around, if it’s not such a workable idea the chances are you’ll forget all about it and save yourself a some thousands of words breaking into the story only to find you have no idea where it’s going next.

There are people out there who can do it, I like to class myself as one of those people, but it comes, I think, with practice. Although, admittedly, on more than one occasion I have found such ideas often don’t work the way we see them in our minds eye because we’re split between one story and the next. I’m just putting that out there.

Then, of course, you have a portion of people who, perhaps in a fit of confusion, hit the forums and social networks with questions about what to do when their story suddenly stalls.

The fix to this isn’t particularly an easy fix, but there is an answer if you’re not too overprotective about what you’ve already committed to the page. And the answer? Unpick what you’ve already done.

But what about all those words you’ve lovingly shaped in the meantime? Do I delete those?

Not always. Simply cut and paste into another document and save it as Misc., because you never know if it will fit somewhere else. Maybe a chapter or two or three paragraphs later.

Now the reason you should try an unpick what you’ve got is simple. Somewhere along the line you may have been going at speed. You found your thread and you ran with it until you hit a brick wall. But wait! It’s not the end of the world, and you can unpick. And if you do, the chances are you’ll find your momentum again.

Perhaps it’s the result of a conflict where your protagonist could have said and done more. Perhaps you strayed out of line a little and made your character do what he or she wouldn’t really do. But, trust me, somewhere along that very wide and winding line, you made something or someone do something they didn’t want to do.

So unpick.

It’s easy to remember where you last felt the rush, so go back and look it over. Read the chapters leading up to it if you have to; but read it through again. Don’t be afraid to break out that red pen or push on the delete button either, but my personal opinion would be to cut and paste the entry somewhere else so you can use it again if you want to. Even if it’s in a whole other story.

Which leads us up to why I never delete or throw out anything. But that’s for another post.

Thanks for reading.