Not Sure Where To Go From Here...

Hey everyone. Question for everyone is I'm not sure where to go with my plot for my Dragon King (name is going to change) plot that I am working on. I have about 105 to 110 pages that I have been working on, but in the past two weeks, I'm stuck. I just can't seem to drive up the energy to write, and when I force myself, I hate the way it turns out and end up deleting it and trying to start over again. Part of this is that I'm just so tired because I have begun working two jobs and have very little free time right now, so that is adding stress and when you stares at computers all day for two jobs, it's hard to sit and stare at the one at home as well. But I love the idea for this story and want to develop it so I don't want to just let it go.

Where I'm at right now is the main characters have married, aligning two very powerful kingdoms, and they are about to bid farewell to the main female character's family. But not sure where to go after this. Now is developing the story to show the life of the newly married king and queen, along with secrets that they are keeping from each other for now until they have learned trust in the other. I have other parts of the story, which I have not submitted here, but in a brief summary, there is a man who believes he has a right to be king and he is planning an attack to over throw the kingdom, and there is also the king's own sister who feels that she should rule, and is practicing black magic secretly, biding her time to strike as well. But I'm stuck on where I should focus my attention, if I should develop these two parts more, or if I should focus on the new couple learning as much about themselves as they can and what they're hiding from each other.

The queen is new to her role, and will be learning to maneuver her way through the politics and ins and outs of the castle life as well as what is expected of her. I know this is all kind of vague, but I'm not quite ready to divulge any more about them because I'm still developing who they are going to become in my head. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Even if it's just tips on how to get my writing going again.

 

Skip to a different part of the story, maybe? Do you have some stuff that you are pretty sure on? Because if you do, jumping to that and getting it down can help get the creative juices flowing. It can also give some context to the part you are skipping, give you a place to write toward. You have a couple of areas you are thinking about focusing. Work on all of them. You can always remove stuff later.

Also, don't force it. At least not if that's not how you normally deal with blocks. Some people write through them (I'm one of those), but if you get blocked, try to write through it, and just end up frustrated, it seems to me like you're just adding more negativity to the process. Maybe give yourself a few days off. Go out drinking. Something like that.

 

I have a week's vacation coming up soon, and my husband will be travelling for work, so I will have the house to myself, I was thinking of maybe not writing until then. Let my brain settle and get used to the new routine with the 2 jobs I have. I guess my issue as well is that I am the kind of person who writes in order of the story. I don't like to write one part and then go back because when i tried that before I just confused myself and the story stopped making sense. But I may have to try that again.

My main character's sister is the one I think that will cause the most damage, because she can cause chaos inside the castle walls, while the other character is more external, but I'm not sure 100% where that will lead. I'm hoping to write down a few small ideas and then see what one resonates with me to add to the story. It's a romantic fantasy novel, so there has to be a romantic component to the main characters, but the ideas of the two characters causing problems works better in my head than just one or the other and hopefully will make for a more exciting story line.

 

Thanks. That is kind of where I was leaning in my head, but just wasn't sure if that was the right move. He isn't showcased much in the first part of the book, except for the parts where there are important evens and I've added his viewpoint on the matter, but he will now become a bit of a major player in the story, as well as the sister in some cases. I may even have the two of them work together, but I'm not sure if that is a good idea or not.

 

I was going to suggest jumping to another part of the story but someone beat me to it so I'll offer up something else. Maybe you just need to muscle through this part, accept that it is less than perfect and add a marker to it to come back later and fix it when you have more context. It seems to me that often when a particular part of the story is being problematic it's because the writer is having some kind of issue with the plot, even if they aren't aware of it. Maybe there is some issue you are working out that is stifling your creativity. If that's the case, you may find the scene easier to write later when you know exactly where things are going and why.

If you are at a crossroads and not sure which path to use, try writing both and see which one resonates with you. It's more work but it may give you some insight on the characters that could be useful later.

 

Maybe you're right. My other issue is that Fantasy is not my genre so much, so I want the story to sound believable in a way and I think I am struggling with that a bit.

 

The great thing about Fantasy is........that it is Fantasy. It is all your world and your stuff. There is no real mold to fit into.
My suggestion is to carry a notebook if you don't already. You can come up with all kinds of stuff and put it all in your notebook and when you feel like sitting in front of a screen, you can move the parts you like to digital.

 

It takes me a while to climb into the story; I was whining this weekend that I'd been looking forward to writing but then it took until...Sunday? to really climb in.

If you don't want to write ahead, how about getting yourself into the world by writing some probably-unnecessary side scenes in the timeline that's already there, before the vacation? That, of course, assumes that it also takes you a while to get into the world.

 

After posting this thread last night, I sat down and started writing again and I got out another page or two, and I've got a feel for where I want to go now. But i will probably try and write a few different side scenes as well and see about incorporating them in the story line later on if it works.