Dilemma.
I am about 3/4 through the current draft of my book, and the characters just won't go any further. I'm a pantser at heart but I've been trying to be more organized with planning, since the story crosses genres and is pretty complex. I've done multiple outlines or synopses trying out different scenarios. I've written out two of them, the entire story all the way to the end, so this isn't a first draft. Neither of the previous attempts really hit what I want to do, and now the characters are just standing there staring at me with their arms folded.
I'm not a good planner. I've taken a longish break on writing this story, but haven't gotten anywhere trying to analyze/diagram the issues. So I guess I'll swing back to pantsing for a bit, see what happens to this hot mess on my computer. But I can't decide if I should thrash to the end of this draft even if the characters pretty much refuse to head to the climactic scene I dreamed up. Or should I head back to the beginning and hack my way through to find the problem as I rewrite?
Any advice?
I am about 3/4 through the current draft of my book, and the characters just won't go any further. I'm a pantser at heart but I've been trying to be more organized with planning, since the story crosses genres and is pretty complex. I've done multiple outlines or synopses trying out different scenarios. I've written out two of them, the entire story all the way to the end, so this isn't a first draft. Neither of the previous attempts really hit what I want to do, and now the characters are just standing there staring at me with their arms folded.
I'm not a good planner. I've taken a longish break on writing this story, but haven't gotten anywhere trying to analyze/diagram the issues. So I guess I'll swing back to pantsing for a bit, see what happens to this hot mess on my computer. But I can't decide if I should thrash to the end of this draft even if the characters pretty much refuse to head to the climactic scene I dreamed up. Or should I head back to the beginning and hack my way through to find the problem as I rewrite?
Any advice?