The US has just been attacked. My MC, a teenage boy, is at school when it happens. The entire school is moved to an underground fallout shelter inside an old building the school owns. They must stay there until given the all-clear, which will be given 4 days later. I've already written the first 3 days. Now I just need to finish this last day before they get released. So close, yet so far! I've been stuck here for weeks. Here's a general rundown of what I've written to fill the past 3 days/chapters: Day 0 (day of attack): Police and National Guard arrive to distribute basic supplies and seal the building to increase shelter space. Shelter inhabitants volunteer to help place plastic sheeting and install air filtration units supplied by the National Guard. Day 1: Shelter inhabitants help furnish the building's empty rooms into habitable living spaces. A group of National Guard troops suit up to go outside for a supply run. They come back with little food, but a large number (dozens) of displaced refugees. Day 2: MC gets a phone call from his older brother, who is in the Air Force. Brother tells MC as much info as he knows about the state of the country. Later, the President gives a speech to the nation via radio. That evening, my MC overhears the National Guard commanders talking about damaged respirator mask filters, which renders them unable to safely perform supply runs. Meanwhile, refugees continue arriving - the shelter does not have enough food, and now cannot acquire more. Day 3: MC listens to a news bulletin on the radio. Finally, some news from around the world is beginning to trickle in. Lunch is served an hour later than usual, and the portions are noticeably smaller - rationing has begun. After lunch, MC plays card games with his friends. Aaaaand that's where I'm stuck. I need to fill 4 more pages, but I don't know with what. I don't want to fill the entire thing with just them listening to news from the radio, but I don't know what else I could possibly do! It's not exactly an environment I have a lot of freedom with. Any suggestions are welcome. I've been working on this story for over a year and have done hardly anything. Once I get past this chapter, it'll start rolling from there on its own - tomorrow they get released, and I have a general idea what I want to do then. But I have no idea what I want to do with it right now. I'm completely out of ideas, there isn't much to do when you're confined to a single building...
Since he was in school when it all happened, I bet a lot of his friends and classmates are there as well? Does he have a girlfriend/boyfriend? I would maybe focus on the strain that the close space puts on your social interactions but also the comfort that other people in the same situation provide you? Maybe a fight breaks out over the food or a mattress or something completely irrelevant? Maybe the dynamics of the every day school life either a) are exactly like that down there (jocks vs. nerds...) or b) completely change (jocks help nerds?) If there are a lot of teenagers + refugees, that's like a giant social bomb waiting to happen especially the more days go by, as a reader I'd like to see that play out. Exactly! And that probably doesn't only drive you insane but your characters as well
This. Don't just ask "what would my characters do to kill the time," ask "how would my characters react to not having any way to kill the time"
You could also just not fill in those last four pages. Usually, if I find myself stretching to come up with something it ends up being cut later on because it was just filler. I'm not saying you're trying to write filler or anything. I'm just giving my experience with things like this. I'm always put on high alert when I find myself having thoughts like this.
Ooooh! Maybe one of the military guys stole some food so he could sell it after the all-clear for profit! That seems like exactly the kind of thing people might do in this world! Great idea, thank you! Great points! I never thought of the interactions between the students and the refugees. Until now they had just been a strain on resources, but further developing them into a social strain could be an interesting dynamic. The school culture was another good point; in the POTUS's speech on Day 2 he spoke about the need for solidarity, but we haven't actually seen any examples of it yet - maybe now it's time for people to begin taking those words to heart and acting on them. A former bully turning soft and helpful seems like a decent way to illustrate that. In a way, you're right. I want to fill up 4 more pages because I've written 2 and every chapter so far has been 6, so I want to make it uniform. So in a way, yes, I'm just looking for something to fill the space, but that doesn't necessarily mean it would be irrelevant to the story - the people I replied to above had some great suggestions on ways I could further explore the dynamics of this new world.
Like I said, I wasn't trying to accuse you of writing filler, and you could absolutely get something compelling, relevant and interesting. That said, there's absolutely no reason you'd need to have uniform chapter length. In fact, I quite like when there is some change in chapter length strategically placed in a novel.
There's an idiot teacher who insists on conducting lessons 'under the circumstances.' Then the guardsmen drag her outside, and shoot her. Everybody feasts on an extra ration.
I've decided I'm going to use pretty much all of the ideas suggested by @marople and @peachalulu. Most of marople's ideas (refugee social bomb, school dynamics changing, a petty fight) I have an idea how I could work them into the story. The only one I could use a little help on is peachalulu's idea - a food thief. I had decided that the food thief will be a mid-ranking member of the National Guard unit in command at the shelter. I'm thinking he was on one of the supply runs the day before (before the faulty mask filters were discovered), and instead of unloading all the food into the building, he snuck off with some and hid it in a Humvee. He gets caught after sneaking outside and back in with a bit of food (nobody is supposed to be outside because their masks are faulty). My problem is that my story is told from first-person point of view, so how would my MC find out about this? The National Guard unit has commandeered several rooms to use for command & control purposes (radio room, offices, meeting rooms, etc), and the entire gymnasium has been converted to a reception and first aid area. One would assume that to prevent panic, the thief would be taken to one of these more private areas to be confronted and reprimanded. My MC already found out about the faulty mask filters by overhearing the soldiers talking in a room one night. If he simply "overhears" something again, it will give the reader the appearance that he is deliberately spying on them, which is not the case. How can my MC discover this? Would it be far-fetched to have my MC actually be the one who catches the thief coming inside, and have him report it to the Captain? Because that's about the only way I can think of.
I don't think it would be too farfetched at all (most of the special stuff always happens to MCs, that's why they are the MCs)! I think the thief would probably do it at night to sneak in. Maybe your MC has a sleepless night, wanders about and sees him. Then you could insert a bit of a dilemma if he wants to tell someone or not (maybe the thief promises to give him some food, too, if he doesn't say anything?). If it's too alike for you to the other incident you could have someone else have the dilemma and maybe consult your MC ("should I tell someone?"). Hope this helps I'd like to read your story some time haha I'm invested now!
Haha, good point! That makes total sense! I've already established sleep problems as being a common problem in this setting, so that would work perfectly and fit a rolling theme I already have going. Interesting ideas. This would be a great way to close the chapter, I always like doing it with a mini-cliffhanger. Oh, thank you! I'll see if I can find a way to send it to you, what I have so far. Thanks for the great ideas and the kind words!
