How do you deal with being at the climax part of your novel and you're not sure how to go about it? My story is one that is a fantasy, and I did write out a plot outline for myself. But then in the past four days, the storyline has gone in a completely different direction and my original outline just wasn't interesting enough for me anymore. I'm at the point where the villain's lair has been found and the scouts are going to tell the king. Now I need to give the King's reaction and start my war, but I'm not sure how to do it. I've never written a fantasy novel, but this one is pouring out and I have well over 200 pages already in my first draft. Any suggestions on what I should do or where I can look to for inspiration? Thanks! Sidenote: My goal is to finish my first draft by Christmas and then edit and proof it within in the month of January.
Think about the king's and the Villain's relationship with each other. If they've met before, were friends or if it's a grudge over the King's order or way of ruling. The king may hesitate if it's personal, may be reluctant to order their death. If it's not personal they may be cold about it. Sending in troops to take down the villain after that, they make contact, war begins.
It will very much depend on lots of different things. Do you know how the war is going to end? How many people are fighting for the villain and how much strength will the king need to stop them? Is he better off sending a small but more specialised group or does he need a full army? Does he want the villain captured alive or killed outright? Does the king win or does the villain best him? How much of a part will your protagonists play? Does this villain need to be taken down by sheer strength or outsmarted? Also it's fine to change your mind about the ending, as long as it's interesting and fits with the rest if the story and make sure to look back for any plot holes or themes that will need changing earlier on in the story accordingly.
@ELeFloch - Hey, congratulations on getting so far into your story with actual writing, not just planning. Well done. I can feel your excitement. However, that might be part of the problem. You've hit a bit of a snag, and you're not actually sure where you're going with this—but you're determined to get done by Christmas. I'd say ...why? Have you got a contract with a publisher? If the answer is no, then recognise that maybe now is when you need to take some thinking time 'off' from the output on your computer. Maybe re-read what you've already written from the beginning and don't skip anything. See if the story's direction becomes clearer, once you revisit what you've already written. Is there anything that strikes you that needs resolution—that maybe you haven't thought of till now? We could all make suggestions based on the little bit you told us, but without actually reading the story, it's difficult to say what to do. What are the issues you are raising in the story? What kinds of personalities do the characters have? Where does everything seem to be leading? Do you want to go there, or are you into the idea of throwing something unexpected into the mix? Are the personalities of the characters clashing with what you originally thought they would do? Have you set up something within your story's world that can't be changed? Or is everything in flux? I'm not wanting answers to these questions myself, by the way. I firmly believe that your story's resolution lies with you. I'm just posing questions you maybe want to ask yourself. I would suggest that you take a break from writing and do some thinking instead. Revisit what you've got. It's obviously different from what you started out with. So get tuned in to what that difference means to you, and more importantly, how it evolved. What made it change? That will be your key to the resolution. Writing isn't all sitting at the keyboard pounding out prose. Thinking, imagining, envisioning also need to come into play. I'd remove the unnecessary 'schedule' you've set yourself, and relax a little bit. You've really been working hard, but now you need to step back and think about what you're still in the process of creating. Wait till some new ideas about how to resolve your story come to you. If you keep thinking about it, the ideas will come!
How many words is 200+ pages? Either way it sounds a nice chunk of work, so well done As for how to go about the next scene - quite often when I'm stuck like you are (where I have a scene but don't know how to write it), more often than not, it is one of two possibilities: first possibility: it is a scene that could be used to do multiple things as opposed to just one, but you don't realise what are the other purposes of the scene until further into the draft or when you're editing and looking to consolidate. second possibility: it is a scene that isn't necessary at all. Think to yourself - if the scene just wasn't there, how would you go about the book then? If your solution comes out more interesting or suitable to you, then you know the scene wasn't needed at all. It forces you to think about resolving your conflict in a different way, which can sometimes be the better way than the most obvious, linear option. If you really have no idea, I'd personally skip over it for now perhaps. In my experience when I've pushed through and written a scene I'm not sure how to write, my doubts and cluelessness always show through. Readers who have otherwise raved about my writing will almost without fail always point to that one scene and say, "This wasn't your best writing" or "I feel this scene was lacking XYZ." My fix is usually to rewrite it from scratch, not even to edit it, because the core structure of it sucks.
I mostly just want to set a goal because I've been very slack on writing in the past few years because well life gets in the way and I got lazy. I've been working on this story for a while and would stop and not write for months. It's a goal just to make myself get back to doing something productive and for me. I'm always doing things for everyone else or work and this is my way of relaxing and letting my imagination flow free.
Oh, I can understand that totally. But maybe relax it a bit? Christmas is one of those times that can easily become a 'deadline.' I do it myself. "I'll have that done by Christmas." "After Christmas, I'll start ...whatever." However, sometimes things don't work out like that. What you're having just now isn't a writing issue, it's a story envisioning issue. It's kind of the opposite of what many people experience. They have no problem with the envisioning of their story; where they come up short is actually writing the story and getting it to match the vision. You're all gung-ho with the writing part of it, but have now hit a snag because you don't know what should happen next. It's a different problem, and this is where time and thinking also become a writing tool. However, you can keep yourself 'working' by not allowing yourself to get sucked into lots of other things when you should be working on your writing. Maybe closet yourself away from other people and their demands, put some music on that gets you into thinking/imagining mode. I have always found that a good long walk somewhere that isn't busy or unfamiliar works wonders, when it comes to this sort of thing. It's still your writing time, and you're still getting work done. Sooner or later you'll hit a eureka moment, when suddenly you see what needs to happen next, and you will be eager to get back to writing it. Not because it moves you closer to your deadline, but because you know the direction is right. By the way, reading books about writing can sometimes provide a push in the right direction as well. They have generated many ideas in my head, that's for sure. Good luck!
Yeah. Besides relationships, I'd also brainstorm tactical information. Like, let's say you list out everything the King knows each side has. The King has 300 pawns, four knights and a bishop. The bad guys have four rooks. He's going to take the best crack he knows how at boxing in those rooks. On the other hand, if the bad guys have twelve knights, he has to watch his own back, eh? How the King handles it is a mix of political pressure, temperament, and tactical considerations. If you don't know what the King would do, you need to get in his head, set the pieces up, figure out what people around him think, what he is about personally, what he can do, and so on and on, then make the decision come out of the King's thoughts as you understand him.
Game of Thrones is a great inspiration! Everybody's lives change so much, you forgot where they started and what they wanted in the beginning . There's betrayals and double-crossing all over the place, people change drastically and take surprising decisions to change the game in ways nobody expected. Or do what Rian Johnson did with Star Wars - turn everything on it's head: you thought we need jedi? Nobody needs jedi! You thought the Big Villain was scary? Nah, he just died a stupid death! You expected that character who always saved the day to save the day again? Nope, he's a wimp now, haha! Have fun with it. But if you are taking writing seriously, you need to decide what your story is about. Nobody wants to read a story that goes on and on forever with no purpose whatsoever. In Game of Thrones we have all these characters who actually want one very particular thing - to get to the throne. In Star Wars we have the evil Empire and the Rebels who fight for the rule of the galaxy. So you have to have one such end goal and steer your characters towards it. And what happens in the middle doesn't matter that much, as long as it's reasonable and kinda makes sense. If the main characters in Star Wars decide they've had enough of the whole Empire vs Rebels thing and decide to join the circus instead, that won't make sense and won't make for a good story. Or, if the characters from Game of Thrones all of a sudden became time travellers and went to audition for the X-Factor, that won't make sense either because that has nothing to do with that end goal you set up for your story earlier.
When I get stuck, I look for a task that doesn't require thought. I can play the different scenarios out in my head and get the feel of which one furthers the story. I have no idea why it works that way but I can rake leaves and create six different scenes with the same characters. Warning, I sometimes talk to myself while doing it.
Sometimes when I get stuck I just take a break and it let my ideas marinade. I usually come up with something better if I just rest my brain for a bit and let ideas come naturally. I try to read a little, watch some new movies and see if anything inspires me.
Thanks everyone! I've taken the week off from writing mostly because I've had such an exhausting week between work and a sick puppy. So I'm going to just leave it alone and hopefully something will come to me. I've been reading a lot in my spare time but nothing has inspired me just yet. Also, if I don't finish before Christmas I won't worry about it too much, it's just a goal for myself because if I don't set one, I let life get in the way and don't do something for myself. Writing it my outlet, especially when I'm having a bad week.
To end your story it would be a good ideal to come from left field have a character that's out of the blue you could go back and rewrite some of the older stuff to write that character in doing this on the phone voice to script forgive the mess.
