Writing a story, blocked up...?

Question

I started writing this story last june. I now have about 74 typed pages on my computer and as of yet it remains to not grow. As I am a freshman in high school I doubt that it may ever get published, but for my own sake (and my friends who bug me for more inceasently) I would very much like to finish. Any suggestions?

*it continues to not grow* sorry about my grammar error:)

UPDATE** this story would most likely be a novel. I did originally have a plot but my characters took hold and changed it completely. I am in the process of developing a new one.

Answer 1

Act it out. Whenever I get writer's block, I like to perform the story alone. Others may give you some weird looks, but trust me, it helps!

Answer 2

Get to know the characters, the setting, and the situation better. What is the problem in your story? If there isn't one yet, that would be why it isn't moving forward. You need a conflict that will challenge your character(s) and make him/her/them grow.

Try writing out a character sketch for all your important characters and writing out a time-line of event so far and ideas for future events.

Observing people around you can also help with ideas. Listen to conversations. Watch how people talk and move. Learn about problems in people's lives. The best way to make a story move forward in a realistic way is to base it on something real.

Also, read. The best writers are well read. Study how other writers in the genre you are writing (or even in other genres) move the plots in their stories. Study the different ways characters can grow.

Finally, just work at it. Sit down at the same time every day and work on it. What comes out at first may not be good, but it gives you some where to go, and may help with ideas. Also, if you work at the same time every day, it will give you time through out the day to think on it and a schedual will help you be better prepared for writing.

Hope that helps. :)

Answer 3

Ask yourself this question: This is a story about (then describe your hero) who wants (then describe what your hero wants.) If you can't answer these two most basic questions then you don't have a story or even an idea for one. A story is about "change". Somebody wants something and they change trying to get it, just like finding and striving for a purpose in life. A story has three parts: Begining, the set-up. A middle, the conflict. And an end, resolution. There is no such a thing as writer's block. People who think they are blocked haven't studied creative writing enough. Read all the books and you will have more ideas then time to write them.

Answer 4

When I'm stuck, it usually means my subconscious knows there's something not right in the story. When I find out where/what and fix it, the story rolls.

If you know where the story is supposed to go - where the conflict is, how it's going to be resolved and who's going to grow through the story, then it's a details problem.

I'd go back and look at character and plot development. Make sure every part of every scene forwards the plot. Make sure the characters aren't doing anything out of character. That's a hang up for me. When I try to make my characters do something they don't want to do, they cross their arms and refuse to work. When I go back and figure out why they're on strike, and fix it, they usually go back to work smiling.

If you can't figure out where it went wrong, set it aside a few weeks - don't read it at all - then look at it with fresh eyes.

Happy writing. I've a few of those early pieces in the files myself. Some of them aren't bad, and a few of them have made me some money.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

Look for the most random inspiration from your life. You can take a small event in your life and twist the details all you want but still keep the deep meaning the same.

Answer 7

what story? short story or novel? You might as well purchase books on either type you 're working with. You see, you have not finish since June. Novice or amateur writer needs an OUTLINE OR SYNOPSIS to finish quickly. good luck.

Answer 8

I usually visualize it in my head while I am in bed before falling to sleep. Most of my best work is done late at night that way.

Answer 9

Beginning storytellerss think of an idea, head to the computer and type scene after scene then show it all to their friends who reply, "I love the part when the kid hit that ball and the neighbors cheered." or "That scene when the lovers embraced on the beach for the first time really got to me" or "I was enthralled when Judy learned that Greg was cheating on her -- I thought she was going to kill him!". But then they say, "there's something missing, though...the beginning, middle, and end." A story shouldn't be a pastiche of scenes. Instead, all scenes dramatize your controlling idea where each character is intricately designed around it.

Stories are a metaphore for life. Before you even begin to write you must have something to say or else your characters go from scene to scene without any meaning like in the examples above. There are three things that I believe are important and these three things are often confused with each other. Learning about these I think will help you to move your story:

1) Premise
2) Setting
3) Theme

Let me illustrate the difference so you can easily find the theme and understand its difference from the setting and premise. By seeing how a writer creates stories, you can see it from his or her point of view and clearly find the theme, create a premise and setting and learn to do it yourself.

The controlling idea is the meaning of your story. It is another word for "theme". The premise is what happens. The setting is the place and time where it's set.

For example, when you ask someone who just watched or read "Lord of the Rings" what it's about, they'll probably say something like, "it's an epic story about a hobbit who is given a huge responsibility to take a magical ring into a mountain to destroy it and save the world and elves and men unite to....etc.." Or they may answer "It's about Middle Earth". These are not themes. The first is simply the premise. The latter is the setting. What the story is *really* about is: "Freedom is attained when we risk and sacrifice ourselves." That is the controlling idea (the theme) of the story. Of course, we can debate if that is the true controlling idea but I'm only giving you my interpretation.

Harry Potter's premise contains magic, and the setting is in a fantasy land, but the theme is not about magic nor fantasy. The theme of Harry Potter might be: "Happiness prevails when we are confident of our own gifts and individuality." Discuss. =)

Now you can apply this understanding as I'll explain below with a story to any story you read.

First, I'll explain the premise. This way you'll see the difference.

A writer finds a premise through research and asking "what if" for any situation. If you read the news, one can find many ideas if you simply ask yourself "what if" as you read through it.

For example, I randomly selected a news article on Yahoo News:
Survivors recall horror of flu pandemic

As I'm reading through each line, I'm thinking about story ideas and asking "what if". For example, I read this line:

>> The flu swept through the nation's capital, which had attracted thousands of soldiers and war workers.

Now I'm asking myself, 'what if someone built a virus and orchestrated a large event so they could infect everyone in it to inflict the most damage?'

That's a start, but sounds a bit cliche, but that's okay. Let your mind race and you'll then ask "what if" upon "what if". What if the person accidently released the virus and kept silent while everyone around them died? What if the event was organized by a force where people are called to gather in one location but everyone made excuses for going there without realizing they were being forced -- only a supernatural force could do that -- and the reason is the supernatural force wanted to end the human race? hehe...this gets into some horror or science-fiction if that's your bag. But you can see the magic "what if" at work.

Let's choose the supernatural 'what if' as the premise in this example. Now we're going to start thinking of the controlling idea. This is what is the heart of your story -- the story you need to tell and what the story is *truly* about.

The controlling idea is not a single word; it's not going to be about "viruses" nor "aliens" nor "Civil War". The Controlling Idea tells us, "life is like this!"

The controlling idea will be a sentence that tells us how and why life changes from one condition of existence to another (again, theme and controlling idea are the same -- I prefer to use controlling idea). This change will show up in the climax of the last act of your story. That's where you will find the controlling idea.

Concerning how I came up with Harry Potter's controlling idea, I looked at the last acts' endings of every Harry Potter story. What value changed? Harry went from being unconfident to confident and therefore was happy whereas each story opens with him in a situation and the world crumbling around him and constantly being challenged. Look at the last act's value change.

Fine writers filter everything they write through the controlling idea and then work up to the last climax -- look at the value that exists throughout the story because there will be themes that come and go. For example in Harry Potter he often seeks to befriend those who try to do him harm so we learn that "Trust is earned when we love our enemy" -- or because that didn't always work we could say, "Evil prevails when we try to love our enemies" but either of these is not the controlling idea of the entire story.

Going back to my story, by following the writer's work and using the premise that people are being supernaturally led to gather in one location, we need to come up with a protagonist. I'm going to use a "what if" and ask 'what if the protagonist is also under this supernatural spell?' That will make it more interesting because it will provide deeper conflict. Not only will he have to try to save the world but also get out the spell himself perhaps.

Some more questions I will ask myself and we're going to come to the controlling idea of the story I created: What is this spell? What is so attractive to force these people to gather without them even knowing they're being forced? Now this is starting to get rich. We know a lot of people do things they don't want because they're manipulated. Cults are famous for doing this. Charismatic leaders and propaganda are also effective. People are manipulated in many ways that many fail to see they're being manipulated. And those who best manipulate do it without you knowing. Life is like that! Now I'm starting to find my controlling idea.

My controlling idea is a sentence, it's not simply "manipulation". So, I start with something -- it's better than nothing: "Evil prevails when we fail to examine our conscious and instead follow others" or "Compassion prevails in humans only when we follow our conscious". Whichever we choose, it must be clear in the last-climax of the last act of your story.

As a writer develops the story, they work to that last act. Many writers paste that controlling idea onto the computer monitor and filter everything they write through it. Your characters may go in different directions, but this controlling idea is the writer's guide.

Concerning the setting, you can place this story in a different dimension, in a different time, or on a different planet. That will change the dynamics of the story but it won't change the controlling idea and that is where the power of the story exists -- it gives it meaning.

For the setting let's place this premise 50 years into the future on Earth.

The character will have an object of desire. In the premise that I've created, the supernatural force is manipulating people to gather in one location so it can infect them with a virus. Because I think this force is intelligent and sly, it's not going to be identical for every peson and is going to feed on the weakness of every individual. I think the best object of desire for the protagonist is going to be his pursuit of power within his sphere of influence. So, let's say he's an oceanographer (I pulled that out of nowhere). He would become famous and influential if he made an important discovery -- perhaps a discovery that can save lives such as tsumani detection technology (but in 50 years in the future we could make a more futuristic device). This is what he wants -- power. The force provides him the opportunity to seek this object and eventually he's going to have to go to this one location where the force intends to infect him. Now we have a lot more what ifs' to ask. As you can see, we're starting a great outline of the story and fleshing it out.

But we need to get back to the controlling idea.

I like up-endings so I want him to become redeemed in the end. I think his pride is too great and his pursuit of power is evil. His idea of saving lives is a great idea, but his reasoning is not -- he's doing it to gain influence for himself, not to help people -- this makes him conflicted and provides excellent dimension to his character. This force is going to manipulate his desire. But I am also going to add a subconscious desire to this. I want it so that he really doesn't want power...he simply doesn't recognize that the work he does already helps to save lives by adding to the research of others who are trying to find effective tsunami detection devices. He'll end up realizing this in the end. And this matches my controlling idea: "Evil prevails when we fail to examine our conscious and instead follow others." His pursuit of power only leads him into trouble as he follows others in trying to please them. But we still have to deal with this supernatural force that is manipulating everyone. Do we make our protagonist one who defeats the force, or do we make him lose by it. Either way, we must know the controlling idea clearly at the end of the last climax no matter what he does.

Although I went off in a science-fiction direction, the controlling idea I discovered can exist in any genre and any setting whether this is based during the time of the Civil War, the present, or on Mars.

Although I wrote a lot, I hope leading you through the writer's process will help you to see clearer how stories are developed and make it easier to find the theme and your premise and then things will begin to fall into place.