Topic Tuesday #4: How I Keep My Story from Fizzling Out

I don't really have this problem. With my prose, maybe, but not the story (which I kind of noticed that people who are strong in their prose tend to struggle more with composing the structure of the story, and people whose strength is the storyline tend to struggle more with prose--but I digress...). And maybe it's because I write out of order. My middle, which seems like the section where most people start to peter out in their stories, is actually my strongest, and the section where I usually start with. I usually begin somewhere in the middle, then during that part, I figure out how I want my ending to go, so I write the ending, then go back to the middle. And then during this timeframe, I usually figure out how I want to start the opening, although it's typically just a general sense. The opening doesn't get finalized until the rest of the book is done, just because it's so freaking hard to get right.

I beat that sag in the storyline by concentrating on the plot points. So I know for sure what I'm writing is necessary. It may still get taken out later, but because I found a better way to carry out the plot point, not because it didn't move the story forward.

PS. I'm a pantser.

Before I add my thoughts here, two important qualifiers I feel I should make:

1. I am still learning, and am nowhere near ready even to SYW at this point
2. Thus, I've not been edited, reviewed, queried, published, or anything

That said, I do read these forums a lot, and one that I've been lurking in a lot is the Query Letter Hell SYW

My logic here is that if I can get a shortened version of anything hammered out to the point where I have a good enough plot summary in 3 or 4 paragraphs, that can help me transition from being a pantser to someone that's more organized, has a good idea of what the overall theme/goals are, and then flesh out story arcs within the larger work. Case in point, I did a first 200 words post, which further developed into a SYW, but the entire story was yet to be written, so I had no idea of where I was going or what I was doing. But after reading the Query subforum, decided to do a story summary in 4 paragraphs, and am ready to jump back in now that I have more solid grist to work with from in my head. Hope this makes sense...

This is a major struggle for me.

When I first started writing, I struggled with plotting a lot (okay, I still struggle with plotting. Just not quite as bad). In my teens, I had two WIPs in a row that fizzled out midway. The first one had a really nonsensical plot. The second one was a coming of age story about a character who had bipolar disorder, which proved to be a bad topic for me to focus on during a time when my anxiety and depression were at their worst. I decided to take a break from that novel (which turned into abandoning it) when it started getting too dark and my mood was getting darker with it. I also put a lot of pressure on myself when I was younger, and my stories would fizzle out when I didn't feel they were good enough.

In my early 20s, I had really poor confidence in my ability to finish stuff. What helped a lot was writing fanfic. Being part of a community and knowing people would read what I wrote helped motivate me. And fandom has a tradition of big bangs (where you write a fic of a certain length by a deadline, and someone makes fan art to go with your story) and secret santa-like exchanges where you write a story for someone. This provided a relatively low-pressure, fun way to overcome some of my hang-ups and develop more consistent writing habits. Completing more and more fics of various lengths really helped build up my confidence.

When I started working on my original fiction again, there were still some challenges and my confidence wasn't (and isn't) at 100%. Writing fanfic allows me to avoid some of the stuff that I find most challenging, so it's not like it gives me perfectly well-rounded experience. But at least I knew I could finish something.

What I've found:

- I need to have a pretty good idea of my plot before I start writing. This is still a big challenge since I'm not that great at plots and I tend to focus more on internal and interpersonal conflicts. I'm really trying to be more critical of my plots and seek feedback on that area more.

- Though it's frustrating and I try to avoid getting to that point, I'm okay with dropping a WIP or putting it on the back burner if it really doesn't work or it's making me miserable.

- I'm more comfortable now with powering through to an extent. If I feel like I'm pantsing too much, I slow down, because pure pantsing has a history of not working for me. But as long as I feel like I know what I'm aiming for, I try to keep going without worrying about whether the scenes are perfect. If my vision is solid, I can go back and work on them more later.

- I'm a daydreamer, and ideas for stories can stick with me for years. I tell myself that I would rather spend some time putting them down on paper than not. If I do that, at least I have something semi-tangible.

Perhaps it's a weakness of mine, but when the spirits stop calling to me on a project, it usually goes in the trash. I've thrown out manuscripts that were as long as two hundred pages.

The only thing I demand of writing (at least while working on a first draft) is that I have fun doing it. If I'm not having fun with a project anymore, I move onto something else. Occasionally, I'll find a new way to approach a story I'd previously trunked, and so I'll return to it and work the new angle. But usually--and this is especially true of novels--it can take a year or two before I get an idea that seems worth carrying out.

My story kind of came to a screeching halt over the last two months or so. I found myself stuck in the middle, unable to eke out new words with any confidence, and continually going back to chapter one and working my way through the old material again and again, tweaking it and trying to figure out what had happened. It was very unpleasant: my husband accurately compared it to consistently failing at a certain level in a video game and having to go back to level one over and over again.

Then I read a quote somewhere, where some author said he always started at the end and worked his way backwards in order to write a story. I was pretty skeptical for a while, and didn't think it'd work for me, but then last week I decided to give it a try. I knew what the last third of my story was going to cover, so I plotted it out on a tentative chapter-by-chapter basis, and started with the last one, and have written about 5,000 new words (three chapters) just in the last couple of days doing that.

I don't know if it'll help me with my sticky middle, but it's given me a burst of confidence and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself again. Maybe when I get back to the point where I fizzled previously, it'll simply be a matter of connecting the dots rather than having to forge new ones into the murky unknown.

I've come to realize that, while I consider myself a pantser, I actually do a hell of a lot of thinking about the story before I start writing, not all of it consciously or with purpose. I'll be walking the dogs and my potential characters will start talking to each other. The only finished novella-length+ works I have are those that had solid characters, and beginnings/middles/ends in my loose thoughts. That said, like Ari, I'm a linear writer. Can't write out of order.

But on the current WIP I got distracted setting off into Act II because the finale wouldn't leave me alone. It was crystal clear in my mind and my brain kept imagining it, so I thought, I'll just write it and then it will be out of the brainmeat space and onto the page and then I can get back to Act II. Only NOW my brain thinks the story is done. GAH! Why did I do that? Now I'm struggling to find the thread of where I left off Act I and try to recover. What a mess.

To answer the topic question, I don't know. How much longer am I going to be in the trial and error phase of finding out, please?


*walks away dragging blankie like Linus*

Ari Meermans said:

Like DancingMaenid, this is a major struggle for me. Add to that I'm externally motivated—as someone pointed out in a previous thread—I don't really have the luxury of putting the story on the backburner. Deadlines have a way of attaching themselves to commitments and, having made a commitment, I'm locked in.

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That made me think of something--I used to be very motivated by deadlines, which was partly why fanfic was such a great fit for me. Plenty of opportunities to join activities with deadlines. External motivation in the form of people being interested in what I'm writing helps a lot, too!

But over the years, I've stopped being able to handle deadlines well. I think I stopped needing them after a while, and I got too bad at procrastinating if I wasn't into the story. There's no way I could write seriously as a career where I have regular deadlines. I've disengaged from fandom and writing fanfic largely because the stuff I used to enjoy doing became too much of a chore. And I found that some of the commitments I was agreeing to were either keeping me from other projects I wanted to work on or weren't working with my writing style (for example, I'm a pretty deliberate writer, and NaNo is a disaster for me).

But I'm better at making myself work on stuff without a deadline, which is good, I guess. There was a time a couple years ago, when I started finding deadlines less motivating, that I freaked out a little because I'd been relying on that. But I've been decently productive, considering. And joining a writing group has helped a bit. We don't focus on critiques, so there are no deadlines, but it helps with accountability. That's exactly what I need right now.

ElaineA said:

I've come to realize that, while I consider myself a pantser, I actually do a hell of a lot of thinking about the story before I start writing, not all of it consciously or with purpose. I'll be walking the dogs and my potential characters will start talking to each other. The only finished novella-length+ works I have are those that had solid characters, and beginnings/middles/ends in my loose thoughts. That said, like Ari, I'm a linear writer. Can't write out of order.

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This is how I am. I spend so much time thinking about my characters when I'm going to sleep at night or riding the bus. For a long time, I was really resistant to considering myself a planner, but then when I really thought about it....

Ari Meermans said:

What do you do when your story begins to sputter and fizzle out?

Tell us; we need to know.

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I couldn't remember if my last story actually sputtered so I pulled it off the shelf and turned to the middle to see where I was in the story. It was a medieval novel set during the black plague. In the middle of the book I set the village on fire. In my current WIP, although more of a pantser than an outliner, I have a very good idea of where the story is going so I doubt I'll have that saggy middle problem. My advice would be to set something on fire. Maybe not literally, but do something drastic to shake up your MCs world.

I definitely struggle with creating stakes and conflict. I have conflict, but a lot of times it's very understated and gets resolved too easily. I'm also working harder to make sure that my protagonist is really facing identifiable stakes.

Start with an ending in mind. Work toward that. Be open to changing it, if matters move in that direction, but at least have that direction.

caw

I've definitely experienced that with some stories. I, too, am a full-on pantser. With my first novel, it definitely bogged down in the middle. I literally ended up having my MC and her best friend walking around...and around. In fact, now that I think back, there was a lot of walking around in that novel.

My most recent novel felt completely different. It was if somebody was whispering ideas in my ear, because I still don't know where some of these scenes came from. It was definitely a more fun novel to write.

I guess, like others here, if I don't know where to go, I'll let it rest awhile, or just type anything and hope that magic shoots out of my fingertips...or something.

chompers said:

I don't really have this problem. With my prose, maybe, but not the story (which I kind of noticed that people who are strong in their prose tend to struggle more with composing the structure of the story, and people whose strength is the storyline tend to struggle more with prose--but I digress...). And maybe it's because I write out of order. My middle, which seems like the section where most people start to peter out in their stories, is actually my strongest, and the section where I usually start with. I usually begin somewhere in the middle, then during that part, I figure out how I want my ending to go, so I write the ending, then go back to the middle. And then during this timeframe, I usually figure out how I want to start the opening, although it's typically just a general sense. The opening doesn't get finalized until the rest of the book is done, just because it's so freaking hard to get right.

I beat that sag in the storyline by concentrating on the plot points. So I know for sure what I'm writing is necessary. It may still get taken out later, but because I found a better way to carry out the plot point, not because it didn't move the story forward.

PS. I'm a pantser.

Click to expand...

*nods* Bona-fide pantser right here and I'll just agree with chompers. I never know what scene I'm writing next, I go with what comes to me.

~

I'm a planner, but I try to stay open to changing my plan if I've got to. My most recent script went entirely off the plan, for example, and ended up better for it. So if the middle is going slowly and I need action, I try to put in a total plot twist. Even if it means changing everything, it's better than boring writing.

I don't start any story without knowing the beginning and the end. Whatever happens in the middle is important but mutable. I might change how the character gets from point A to point Z but A and Z remain the same and knowing the goal of the story and how badly I want to get there helps me to stay interested in the story.

Ari Meermans said:

While it happens more often to pantsers, it can happen to plotters sometimes, too. It comes about for different reasons. But for whatever the reason, the story loses its way or it loses its oomph. We almost always sense it as soon as it begins to happen. It’s the story that fizzles out.

What do you do when your story begins to sputter and fizzle out?

Tell us; we need to know.

Click to expand...

My partner and I have discovered that walks are good for everything. Saving the derailed novel is one of the things walking does for me. I have become a more diligent writer simply because he demands chapters from me in allotted time frames. But he doesn't just leave me stranded. He will take a three hour walk with me if it means I discuss my novel as he walks beside me and listens. He interjects when I'm crazy or derailing myself with my own thoughts. He makes suggestions knowing full well I may tell him to go fuck himself. He has brilliant ideas that I run with and he has idiotic ideas that I beat him over the head with. Just as I have failure ideas and brilliant ones. He LISTENS. That's the golden thing. We walk, I talk and he listens. Then, when I get back home, I feel sane enough to dig in and continue on the corrected course.

Am I late to the party? *looks around*

Someone mentioned that when the spirits stop calling them, they trash the story. I do something similar. Maybe I would incorporate that dead idea into a new story, use its characters or plot elements... basically they become firewood for the next story.

I frizzed out in the middle of a series I was writing, and there was no way I could abandon it either, so I simply took a break from it. I remember hearing something like, in order to have good output, you must have input- and I hadn't had any input at all. I don't read a lot of books (gasp), watch movies... okay, I listen to songs, but only because I need to listen to something while driving to work.
(Gosh I sound so boring). But there is a reason for that too- I learnt from an early age that I immerse myself pretty quickly into anything- like if I'm watching American Horror Story for example, I start behaving oddly, or start thinking like the characters, and after a while it starts becoming very unhealthy (esp if it's a show like that). Yes, it gives ideas, LOADS of ideas, but you have the little side effect of utterly bonkers...

So when I can't think of what to do anymore, I just dip my foot into the insanity pool, by reading or watching something. Again, I'm very picky with what I read/see due to their effects, but it works, and the ideas roll in...

I'm afraid that I may be starting to have this problem with the current project I'm working on. I just broke 37,000 words and I feel like I'm losing interest in the story. I think this might be normal and I may just have to grit my teeth and finish the damn thing. Since I have a history of starting ambitious writing projects and then abandoning them, it has become extremely important to me that I finish this particular project despite how bored I feel about the story.

I've considered taking a break from it and working on something different, but I'm fearful that I may not return to it if I do that.

I do concur with DancingMaenid's assessment about fan fiction. A lot of writers tend to look down on it, but I think it is helpful to have a built in audience if--for nothing else--to make you feel better about your writing.

The novel I'm working on right now actually came about because I was having writer's block and decided to write anything just to get things moving. I started building the plot around that and somehow, it turned into this long novel project.

To paraphrase Raymond Chandler to fit my genre, when in doubt have a woman kick the door in with a sword in her hand.

I have actually, literally done that in one of my books...

When I find I am struggling, that I can't see where to go next, I discuss it with myself - brainstorming in text. Sit there and write stuff about why one character is doing something, why the other one is, and then "what if". What if Jack and Jill go up the hill? What if they go down the hill? (To use really silly examples.) What if they say stuff lugging a bucket, lets go to the smith and get him to build a pump.
Just keep prodding at it and burbling. May well take a few days. I might also jump ahead and write a later scene where I know what I want. But there always comes a moment where I do a "you prat" moment and realise that I am stuck because xxxxx and then it is fixed because I'd put in something that was unrealistic for the character or the story and my subconscious had spotted this and in a subverbal way had been trying to alert me. Or have a "if I do x, a whole new thread opens out, um is that too many threads, ah, if I change that one bit there then it will tie in very nicely with the first thread" and I'm off again.

Over the years, I've learned that I don't like hurting my characters per se. But if I do (when I don't wimp out, that is), it naturally ups the stakes and the story moves forward. Guess that's my way of stopping the story from dying while writing (which reminds me, I need to do that in the current WIP). Otherwise, I generally have several creative projects on the go, all at diffrent stages, including games (gotta come up with solutions sometimes, somehow).

First off, what's a "pantser"? Okay, got that out of the way.

Like chomper, I like to start in the middle. My stories usually begin with "What would happen if somebody did this?" I let my imagination run with it, and if it takes off, I've got a new story. If not, it goes on the back burner and usually dries out.

For example: What would happen if somebody electronically stole all of Donald Trump's money? If I let my imagination run, I can see explosions, fireworks, political intrigue, etc. A few hours of this might uncover a nifty plot twist, or something else that's cool. If I feel like it's a 'go', then I start making notes, maybe even write some lines or disjointed paragraphs. If I decide I MAY have a story, then I search for what I call "the stepping stones" that lead the Reader from beginning to end. If satisfied, I'll then go back and pave a road from one stepping stone to the next, and may discover neat detours, twists, etc. in the meantime.

For me, writing a "story" is more like building a building. I can't just build the glorious facade without first erecting a foundation and walls. Anyway, I feel like I'm back at my university job, so I'll shut up. If nothing else, kill the cat! ;-)

Regards,

DrDoc

DrDoc said:

First off, what's a "pantser"? Okay, got that out of the way.

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Pantser is someone who does not outline. By the seat of their pants... (-: