• Read this: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?288931-Guidelines-for-Participation-in-Outwitting-Writer-s-Block

    before you post.

Not a block, but speedbumps!

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Falada

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So, I am writing a book. It seriously wants to be written, and when I'm not writing it, it follows me around like a mild case of a multiple personality disorder, babbling quietly in the back of my head.

Moreover, it is getting written. I sit down, and writing eventually happens.

But, it is so, damn, slow. I'm not doing self-editing. Rather, I'm going, okay, the character is at *this* point, and I want him at *that* point. How am I going to accomplish this?

After about an hour of fiddling, dithering, and listening to the character talk about unrelated things, the answer usually turns up like one of those people who is fashionably late to everything and proud of the fact.

It's a bit annoying.

During the fiddling and dithering, I tend to go back to figuring out what does the character know, what does he need to know, what does he want, who does he know?

Does anyone have methods that cut down the down time on figuring out what happens next in the story?
 
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Falada said:
After about an hour of fiddling, dithering, and listening to the character talk about unrelated things, the answer usually turns up like one of those people who are fashionably late to everything and proud of the fact.

You sound like a writer . . . do you read Elizabeth Bear's LiveJournal? It might at least strike a chord since she seems to have a similar, err, methodology.
 

Falada

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I had not heard of it prior to your post, but I looked, and I am charmed. A chord has decidedly been struck. Thank you! This is good stuff.
 

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Bear is someone whose journal I read for quite a while before I realized she was Elizabeth Bear, whose Jenny Case books I discovered while traveling, and devoured.
 

helene

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Falada said:
So, I am writing a book. It seriously wants to be written, and when I'm not writing it, it follows me around like a mild case of a multiple personality disorder, babbling quietly in the back of my head.

Why don't you ask a few characters what happened? Or better yet, ask them to write it for you. Someone's gotta come up with something good eventually!

If all else fails, you can try what I did for one of my short stories. On a large piece of cardboard (I disassembled a computer box for this!), write a short description of where the story/scene starts at the upper left hand corner. Then, write a short description of where you want to the story/scene to end at the lower right hand corner. Draw a box around the two. Over the next few days, write some ideas that come to you and circle it. When you have a million circled ideas, cross out the ones you absolutely hate and play connect the dot with your favorite ones, starting at the first box and ending at the second box. A sharpie marker works great for this!

A little crazy - but it worked for me. Good luck!
 
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