I'm copying, without permissions but hoping he doesn't mind,
an excerpt from a post Dale Emery made on the NaNo forum. After ten minutes looking for it, I wanted others to see it, too. Link goes back to the original post, if you'd like to rep him.
Like the title says, what questions can you ask yourself when you're stuck in your WIP?
When I'm stuck, I like to jiggle my brain by asking questions like these:
- Who might be affected by what just happened? Who else might be affected? How? What might they do about it?
- What's the worst thing that could happen to my main character right now?
- What might happen just after this scene? What might happen just before the next scene?
- How can I make things harder for the MC? What obstacles can I put in the way of the MC's goal?
- How can I raise the stakes? How could I make the goal even more important to the MC? How might I make the thought of failure even more terrifying to the MC?
- How can I eliminate an important skill, ability, or resource that the MC was counting on?
- How could I add time pressure?
- What two characters have not yet appeared together in a scene? How could I bring them together?
Dale
Feel free to add your own. I find them very useful and hope others do, too.
