Hitting the Writing Wall

Lately the theme in writing that keeps popping up is the good ol’ fashioned writing wall. At times, it could be confused as a form of writers block. I.e. there is something large and bulky that keeps getting in the way of a writer and their story moving forward.

Usually I do the duck and dodge to get around the wall. However, there are times when that good old wall is just like a line in that camp song, “Can’t go over it, can’t go under it, can’t go through it…”.

I’m more than half way through my NaNoWriMo novel. Well, just half way to ‘done’, but ‘almost there’ in terms of hitting the 50,000 word mark. Despite the rapid-fire way that the majority of my work in progress has flooded page after page of black text on white screen, there have been moments when I’ve sat back after typing 3000 words and gone, ‘crap. now what?’. I hate that. Usually it involves me packing up my laptop and stomping around outside, head ducked down in thought with my mind going, ‘okay, how about this? Too lame. This? No, unrelated tangent that would take me too far away from the story. This? No, flying dinosaurs would totally change the genre. This? No.’ And then BING, I have it. I’ve done the 20 questions on myself and found a way through, over, under or around that wall.

But sometimes, you aren’t so lucky, you have to go back and read through and try and figure out where exactly you started building that wall, brick by brick. And you have to go do some masonry work without letting the whole structure crumble. This is why I have begun using a method where I write down two or three or five words about the scene after I’ve written it–or occasionally before I do if I have a clear idea of where I want to go. With each scene I write whether it is an action, reaction/consequence or decision. If I just had a reaction, I need a decision. That helps helps me with progress and keeps me focused on what is really going on in the story instead of the last feeling I generated.

The other thing that helps is discussing my plot bogging problem with my crit group or some other wonderful ear over in the Agent Query community. That helps too.

And if there seems like there is no way over, around, under or through your wall, I like the method I’ve begun calling, ‘push someone off a tower’. In my current work in progress, I did just that. This scene was going nowhere. It was boring, the characters were griping and then my heroine shoved her best friend off the tower. Suddenly I had action. (They were bungee jumping–it’s not a murder mystery. Yet.) So now when I find myself thumping into a wall, I turn around and push someone off a tower. Last time my heroine got arrested. That was good for about another 8000 words.

I’ll leave you with some fitting and timely NaNoWriMo writing advice from author Janet Fitch:

“I know it feels like you have all these options and when you make a decision, you lose a world of possibilities. But the reality is, until you make a decision, you have nothing at all.” (Her therapist was telling her this.)

“So you have these options, but which one to go for? When in doubt, make trouble for your character. Don’t let her stand on the edge of the pool, dipping her toe. Come up behind her and give her a good hard shove. That’s my advice to you now. Make trouble for your character. In life we try to avoid trouble. We chew on our choices endlessly. We go to shrinks, we talk to our friends. In fiction, this is deadly. Protagonists need to screw up, act impulsively, have enemies, get into TROUBLE.”

“The difficulty is that we create protagonists we love. And we love them like our children. We want to protect them from harm, keep them safe, make sure they won’t get hurt, or not so bad. Maybe a skinned knee. Certainly not a car wreck. But the essence of fiction writing is creating a character you love and, frankly, torturing him. You are both sadist and saviour. Find the thing he loves most and take it away from him. Find the thing he fears  and shove him shoulder deep into it. Find the person who is absolutely worst for him and have him delivered into that character’s hands. Having him make a choice which is absolutely wrong.”

Love it! Good luck getting over, under, through or around your wall.