Ugh. Pause, go forward, or go back?

When I struggle like that, I go back to the beginning and re-read what I've already written. I find that I get back into the feel and the way to proceed usually reveals itself.

Going back to the beginning can work. It sometimes sparks an idea that solves everything. Sometimes, though, you just need to get away from the work, do something else.

I don't know about you, but there comes a point in every book I write where I get fed-up with the characters and their stories. Taking a step back, writing a short story or the outline of another novel, is a great way to refresh your mind.


Trust me, the second you want to focus on something else, those pesky earlier characters will unfold their arms and come out fighting.

As you've seen, there are various ways to approach this. Here's another. Back up to the last point where you felt excited about the characters and where the story was going. And then look at what happens immediately after that point. This could be where the story went off the road and got stuck in the mud.

As a fellow pantser, I've had times where I hit that same stone wall. The method for finding the problem has varied a bit, but however I get there (rereading and revising forward, or backing up to see if I missed a road sign somewhere, or even writing a whole new section just so I'll stop obsessing about the problem), the solution always revolves around finding the place where I went wrong. The latest incidence of this was the longest I have even been stuck, but it turned out the solution was only a matter of backing up a few paragraphs and rewriting from there. And I had to rewrite it several times, in different ways, before I finally hit on the direction that was right.

Persistence is sometimes the only thing that gets you through.

Usually when I get stuck in this place it's because I've taken a wrong turn somewhere and I need to change something. It's my brain's way of not letting me go forward with something it's screaming won't be viable story. But that's just me. Where was the last place you felt the story was grooving? Is it a long way back?

I've been in this exact situation, and recently. I break and work on something else. Short stories, or another novel. Going back to the beginning can help, but carries a lot of risk. If you know about a scene in the last quarter of the book you want to write, just write it. Don't worry about whether it will keep or not. Working through it will open some doors to the other possibilities in the last part of the book, and you may find what you're looking for.

Trust your instincts. If you write intuitively then you have to trust the intuition; planning wont fix it. You're stuck for a reason.

Take a break, read something else, write something else, go back and reread the beginning, all of those are good.

As others have said, it's a pretty common experience for any writer. Writing is a creative, intuitive process, most of it is unconscious even though you might think otherwise. You're a panster so you might already know this: stories, inspirations, breakthroughs, they do require active thinking, but the best ideas come when you've thought all you could ever think, leaned back with no hope, and then the idea/epiphany just pops into your head all of a sudden. It's not a magical process, but it just works below your consciousness so most of it just happens naturally. In fact those moments when you think, "Oh, what an idea!" it's actually a work of your unconscious, where different thoughts merge without your awareness and then they enter your awareness in the form of inspiration.

The point of this rather abstract explanation is: Most of the time when you've done all your left-brain, logical, analytical thinking and planning, it's time for the right-brain to take over, but most of the right brain processes require the opposite our careful critical thinking. They require openness and a beginner's mind.

So here's what you should do in my opinion (and this has worked for me many times): as others have suggested, read through the MS, but without trying to fix it, just get a feel for it, and then once your unconscious has an idea of the new picture or how things stand in the story, it will go to work for you, and you don't have to try to actively think about then. In a few days it'll give you a solution when you least expect. The trick is not to force it or pressurize it or do the critical thinking that we're taught throughout our life (which is very useful usually but often fails to help in creative pursuits).

Glad you found inspiration! It's the best, isn't it?

Glad you found your way out!

I'll just put my advice here, since this is an evergreen topic:

This happened to me recently, and I tried to imagine the absolute worst possible thing could be to happen to my characters. It took several days, but I finally got an idea. I still wasn't convinced, though, because this was a really bad thing and broke what I had planned later in the story. The more I thought about it the more it made sense. I had to pre-kill my darlings.

To answer the initial question: pause, don't panic, take a step back for a few days, go on some walks, take long showers, remain open-minded about what ideas come to you.

Glad you found your way back. But this is a general problem. And one of the solutions is: QUIT. The book may forever be a failure that no amount of inspiration and reworking will fix.

That's all right. Many of us have several trunked books that will never work out. But they WERE useful. They were practice. They made me better.

And sometimes, amidst the wrecked books, there were hidden gems which I was able to pull out, polish, and use. Partial books may be failures, but writing them was a success.

Not sure you can have it both ways. You're either a pantser and let your characters take you wherever they want to go, or you plan ahead how it's all going to end. If you want to guide your characters toward a certain end, you might have to map out some waypoints for them to follow.

Of course you can combine both approaches, but not while insisting on the purity of either. I would try a little of both. Your characters are probably not as stalled as you make it sound. Unless all their conflicts are resolved, they want to keep going, just not in the direction you want. Maybe just see which way it is they want to go. Either you will find a way to join that up with your path, or you will understand what motivates them to go that way, and you can go back and adjust your plot to remove or obstruct that motivation, so that they will stay on the course you designate.

Harlequin said:

Trust your instincts. If you write intuitively then you have to trust the intuition; planning wont fix it. You're stuck for a reason.

Take a break, read something else, write something else, go back and reread the beginning, all of those are good.

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I agree with Harlequin. I was stuck and rewrote my ending twice but just couldn't nail it. I took a break for a month, read a lot, reflected on the ending from time to time, and then one night just before bed--BAM! there it was. Best of luck.