I figure this happens more often with the non-outliners, but with a short story I'm writing that's all dialog I've kind of written myself into a situation I can't get out of. Does this happen to you? What do you usually do to get out of it?
How often do you write yourself into a corner?
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I do that all the time. Then I either backtrack and see where I could "re-route" things, or I start brainstorming solutions, see which one is the most feasible for the story. Since I don't like rewriting that much, I usually end up doing the latter and taking the story in a different direction than originally intended, but it's more fun that way.
Even when I don't outline (which I don't, for short stories), I have a pretty solid mental plan for where a story is going and what route it's taking. Of course, there are times when I'm pounding at the keys and get a great idea for a change and start writing it in without thinking it through--and that gets me into trouble sometimes. Possibly a failure to plan, or a new idea not fully explored, are the source of your dead end.
I suggest you analyze your jammed story and figure out where it took its wrong turn. Maybe even write it down a page or paragraph at a time, what each one's purpose is. ("He learns she's been unfaithful. She decides he doesn't love her. She hopes they can fix things up but is afraid to say that.") I bet much of it can be salvaged once you see where you went astray.
Maryn, trying to help but not sure she did
I suggest you analyze your jammed story and figure out where it took its wrong turn. Maybe even write it down a page or paragraph at a time, what each one's purpose is. ("He learns she's been unfaithful. She decides he doesn't love her. She hopes they can fix things up but is afraid to say that.") I bet much of it can be salvaged once you see where you went astray.
Maryn, trying to help but not sure she did
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Do you mean you've gone down a path that has an outcome you don't like?
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Pretty much, I delete the offending scenes. If I've painted myself into a corner, it means the scenes shouldn't have been in there in the first place.
I'm not sure that's always true - sometimes it means the story or the characters moved in a more "natural" direction than the plan called for. So it's not the scenes that were off, but the plan.
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I'm not sure that's always true - sometimes it means the story or the characters moved in a more "natural" direction than the plan called for. So it's not the scenes that were off, but the plan.
However, it is true for me and the way I write. I tend to put everything in but the kitchen sink into my first drafts because sometimes I can come up with some really cool stuff that plays into the story. But I also end up with scenes that I really like but never belonged in the story in the first place.
Well, more that the plot is stuck in a groove that I can't get it out of. I guess it is a bit of poor planning (since I often don't plan what comes out). Such is the danger of "going with it" I guess.
Not true.
I'm currently writing an outline for my novel. I've reached chapter ten and realised there is a gap. I found I've written myself into a corner, but it's probably the best way to go. I'm pushing my character into a corner: alienating the police and isolating himself. This is going to add extra depth when I get fill the gap and rejoin the existing manuscript.
Forget it. Outliners can write themselves into a corner during the outlining process; I know, because I've done it several times. Fortunately, it makes fixing the problem a lot less time-consuming.
How do I get out of it? I usually backtrack and see where I went off into the wrong direction, or I try to brainstorm scenarios in which the problem doesn't occur.
Occassionally.
It can happen to everyone, even those working closely with an outline.
What happens then is you need to go backwards and pick the story apart like you would unravel knitting until you reach the point where it started to go wrong, then pick up and go in another direction,
It can happen to everyone, even those working closely with an outline.
What happens then is you need to go backwards and pick the story apart like you would unravel knitting until you reach the point where it started to go wrong, then pick up and go in another direction,
There's a difference between writing yourself into a corner and the plot thread fizzling out.
You SHOULD be writing characters into a corner to see how they react and get themselves out of trouble. Otherwise you have a character tiptoing through 100,000 words without being challenged.
You SHOULD be writing characters into a corner to see how they react and get themselves out of trouble. Otherwise you have a character tiptoing through 100,000 words without being challenged.
I agree with the backtracking. If I get stuck it's usually because a few pages back (sometimes just a paragraph) I took a wrong turn.
Kind of like a maze of events or a choose-your-own-adventure. My brain usually knows what it wants it's just that my waking mind doesn't always listen.
I also agree with gothicangel yes you do want to put your characters in a no win situation to test their sanity and "macguyver" skills. Personally I enjoy torturing mine.
Kind of like a maze of events or a choose-your-own-adventure. My brain usually knows what it wants it's just that my waking mind doesn't always listen.
I also agree with gothicangel yes you do want to put your characters in a no win situation to test their sanity and "macguyver" skills.
Personally I enjoy torturing mine.
I haven't found myself in a corner I couldn't get out of. That's what makes the story interesting.
I did get to the ending too early. I started a novel for the NaNoWriMo contest, pounded the keys for 20 some days and came to the ending where the bad guys were arrested at the 55,000 word mark. That was much too short for a novel. I had to set it aside for a couple of months while my creative mind worked on the problem. In late January, I came up with a solution that added 23,000 more words and, I think, a more satisfying ending.
I did get to the ending too early. I started a novel for the NaNoWriMo contest, pounded the keys for 20 some days and came to the ending where the bad guys were arrested at the 55,000 word mark. That was much too short for a novel. I had to set it aside for a couple of months while my creative mind worked on the problem. In late January, I came up with a solution that added 23,000 more words and, I think, a more satisfying ending.
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I do now and then, but so far I've not had to scrap a good scene because I couldn't eventually write my way out of it. I've scrapped crappy scenes, though.
I give it some time. A lot of times the solution will come to me while driving, running on the track or on the racketball court.
I give it some time. A lot of times the solution will come to me while driving, running on the track or on the racketball court.
I backed myself so far into the corner with one of my books that I now can't decide who's the real hero of the story. weee!
I do it all the time (And I'm an outliner) but I do it on purpose. I like being in that corner, because it forces me to really think outside the box and come up with something the reader won't see coming. After all, if I don't know what my protag is going to do next, odds are the reader will be guessing as well. It also puts me tight in the protag's head and they act based on what's in the scene and the story, not on what my outline tells them to. I've found this helps keeps things spontaneous, even with an outline to work from.
It backfires on me once in a while and I have to scarp whatever I was doing because it just won't work, but it usually work very effectively for me.
What I do is just think like the character, look at the scene and try to figure out what they'd do in that situation. What options are available to them, what do they know. I don't think about "what can I do to make this scene work" because I find that often puts me thinking plot wise on a bigger scale, and not dealing with the current problem at hand. I just keep thinking what would the protag do, what would the antag (or whatever is the foil in that scene) do, and go back and forth until I get where I want.
Sometimes you'll see a possible way out, but something has to happen for that to work. So then I think about ways that situation would occur.
It backfires on me once in a while and I have to scarp whatever I was doing because it just won't work, but it usually work very effectively for me.
What I do is just think like the character, look at the scene and try to figure out what they'd do in that situation. What options are available to them, what do they know. I don't think about "what can I do to make this scene work" because I find that often puts me thinking plot wise on a bigger scale, and not dealing with the current problem at hand. I just keep thinking what would the protag do, what would the antag (or whatever is the foil in that scene) do, and go back and forth until I get where I want.
Sometimes you'll see a possible way out, but something has to happen for that to work. So then I think about ways that situation would occur.
I don't outline, but I can't remember ever writing myself into a corner. I'm not even sure what such a corner would look like?
Each thing that happens should be the direct and natural result of whatever event preceded it.
But if the character is alive, there should be a way out of any situation.
Maybe I'm just not understanding the problem because I've never faced it.
Each thing that happens should be the direct and natural result of whatever event preceded it.
But if the character is alive, there should be a way out of any situation.
Maybe I'm just not understanding the problem because I've never faced it.
When I write myself into a corner, I think about what Gene Hackman's character said in The Heist. "I try to imagine what a guy smarter than me would do then I do that." It's worked every time so far.
Yes, even with an outline, because what sounded perfectly sensible in the outline just won't work when it comes to the actual draft, usually because of the way characters have developed in ways that I didn't quite forsee.
Sometimes I backtrack a few scenes and have another go, other times I decide, no, I'm right, this is where I should be, and start tweaking my outline to get out of it.
Sometimes I backtrack a few scenes and have another go, other times I decide, no, I'm right, this is where I should be, and start tweaking my outline to get out of it.
Thus far, never, though I usually have the entire story, start to finish, in my mind before I ever start writing.
As someone once said, if you write yourself into a corner, kick a hole in the wall and keep going.
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