When your writing something, and you know where you are in then plot. And you know what's going to happen next. You just don't know how to get from where you are to what happens next? I get stuck there all the time. Just wondering if i'm the only one!
Hmm, can't say i have this problem. If you know where you are and where you want to be, surely connecting the dots is a relatively straightforward process. If you know how the story goes, you must know how it moves along...and if theres a logical progression anyway, you may not even need the connecting bits...
The saggy middle syndrome. Put some conflict in there. Make the road long and bumpy for your characters. The harder it is to get to the end, the more they will love you for it.
Another trick- make sure each scene is its own short story, with a beginning, middle and end. Keeps things flowing.
Be careful with this. If done wrong you end up with pages and pages of material with no real plot relevance and the reader will get fed up.
Best advice. This is something that really helped me start making sense of my work. When I first set out to write my novel, I saw my storyline in my head as one long line from the start of the book to the finish, with a few breaks in the line. I knew mostly what I wanted to happen, but wasn't sure how to get there. When I began to see the plot of the story as a "line" instead of the storyline itself, I began to see each chapter as a smaller storyline on it's own and that was something that REALLY helped me transition from scene to scene.
I usually have the exact opposite problem. I finish it all cause i know exactly where its going and i finish it too soon, leaving my story a lot shorter then I ever wanted it too be cause i was in a rush and excited to finish it!
I am right there with you on this and I know exactly what you mean by "knowing what comes next, but not knowing how to get there" from where you are. I'm stuck right now too. I've been plugging away a few thousand words a day, and now for the last two days I've been stuck. I think it is because I am unsure how I want my character to be. My MC is faced with a hard choice, and I am not sure exactly how to write it, or which I want him to choose. But, I know what happens after his choice, whichever one chooses, because it is a main plot point. It's just this little sub-plot that I am having an issue with. Stupid Main Character. Just has to go and make life difficult. I'm half tempted to go back 5k words and rework the whole scene to change the whole sub plot. Aaarrrgggrrr...uuuuggghhhh... The hair pulling frustration!
Hah bluebell, I have a saying- Character's are like horses, when they are being difficult ride(write) them until they behave. Put your character into some crazy situations. Him fighting with an elephant, working at a circus, him being a bank robber, him at the super market and the old lady in front of him is pay 50 dallors in pennies and dimes. Try and stay true to his personality in each scene- sooner or later you'll be like "OH you know what. he'd choose THIS path."
Am I ever in this situation? Pretty much every day! I don't tend to plan, so I end up meandering a lot, with several short disjointed 'clips' i my story...then I need to somehow stitch them together
Bluebell- read what I posted earlier. Each scene is a mini-story. That way, you finish something and get to start a new thing between each scene. Rather than making the novel a long slog from beginning to end, you have small pieces that you finish.
It can be a complicated situation to deal with, and I have a feeling my tendency to add interesting challenges and twists to every step of the journey might actually detract from the main plot. I'm not too concerned about it at the moment, but it will make the editing process quite an adventure.
This is a great idea, I think I'll be trying this myself later. I have a MC that is lacking body and this little exercise might just help me to flesh him out.
