Feeling Kinda Stuck. Help?

[Addison]

Write the scenes as they come. If you have a peek at a good scene while you're....waiting for the bus, then write it. Not the cliff notes, the synopsis, write it out from beginning to end. If you synopsis it then, when you get home or some place with more paper or a computer, you won't be able to write it as clearly and colorfully as when you saw it.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I'll admit, as linear a writer as I am, I often get snippets of dialogue and description in my head that I add to a "Passages" page under the book's tab in OneNote (dear heavens, I LOVE that program!). So, I'll have short conversations or just really good lines all written and waiting for me when I get to that section.

One of my favorite lines is one that won't appear for several books, but has become a running gag around my house. One of the characters says to her young son, "They all said teaching you to talk would be a mistake, but, no, I wouldn't listen."

 

[Guru Coyote]

I'll admit, as linear a writer as I am, I often get snippets of dialogue and description in my head that I add to a "Passages" page under the book's tab in OneNote (dear heavens, I LOVE that program!). So, I'll have short conversations or just really good lines all written and waiting for me when I get to that section.

I love this approach! And I also agree with Addison, that writing down a synopsis will likely loose the clarity and feel of the idea. Combining both might be the best way: write it down, but save it in a "things to put in later" file.

One of my favorite lines is one that won't appear for several books, but has become a running gag around my house. One of the characters says to her young son, "They all said teaching you to talk would be a mistake, but, no, I wouldn't listen."

This just gave me an idea (and sorry in advance to straying further off-topic than I normally do already.)

Often we use prompts like "Write a story beginning with the line..."
Now how about turning this around and having to write a story that ENDS with a certain line?

 

[Addison]

The worst thing that can happen is either you have a pen but you've run out of paper and resort to either a napkin or an envelope or something that you'll later mistake for trash. Or you have paper but your pen's out of ink. In that case always carry extra.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

The worst thing that can happen is either you have a pen but you've run out of paper and resort to either a napkin or an envelope or something that you'll later mistake for trash. Or you have paper but your pen's out of ink. In that case always carry extra.

Sing it, friend. I buy pens by the box. My personal favorite is, "I know I wrote that down somewhere, but now I can't find which of my 50 notebooks I wrote it in." So now, I keep 1 (count 'em, 1) notebook in my purse for when I'm out, and everything else has me dashing to my computer to type it into OneNote.

Of course, all that sitting in my computer chair may explain the width of my backside. Hmm...