Is your writing not going anywhere?

niuniente:

magicaldragondork:

• Raise the stakes. Put your characters in a bad situation and make it even worse.
• Get a piece of paper. Write down a list of “what-ifs” that could take your story from where you are to the next stepping stone over in an engaging way. Choose your favorite.
• Find a playlist of a genre you don’t usually listen to. Put it on shuffle. Let the first song you hear be an inspiration for your next major plot point.
• Find a word in a foreign language that you can’t translate into English. Let that word become a significant part of your story.
• Look up a place name generator. The first result is the next stop in the plot. Let the worst thing they can imagine be waiting for them there.
• Find a random country. Take a food, a dance, or a weird little custom from their culture and work it into the story somehow.
• If you are not a pantser, become one. Throw away your character arc and let your imagination dance naked in the proverbial rain.
• Stop. Take a break. Go for a walk and notice the little things. See and describe with all five senses. Look at things through your characters’ eyes. Breathe in.
• Look at the weather outside your window. How can you describe it without playing to “It was a dark and stormy night…”? Is it even possible?
• Read. Read read read read read. It doesn’t have to be a novel. What’s going on in the world? What new scientific breakthroughs have been discovered? What is Marmaduke up to this week? Look at how they tell their stories and learn from them.
• Doodle. Just draw whatever. It frees up your mind and you could come up with some fantastic plot points along the way.
• Go and be weird and stupid with your friends. They probably have things to say that could come right from the mouths of your characters.
• Look up regional gothic, aesthetic boards and self-care. Tumblr is a goldmine waiting to be tapped.
• Imagine your story as a musical, or better yet, an opera. Sing it, and you can get away with murder.
• Forget everything you ever learned about writing. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Write now, edit later.
• Start over. Everything must return to the ashes it came from someday, even your writing.

I’d like to add a few more things to this great list!

• Don’t force yourself. Sometimes the story isn’t ready to go
  forward just yet. Sometimes you aren’t ready to go forward just yet.
• Don’t fear to try something completely different!
• Jump in the character’s position; what would you feel, do,
  act, say ect in the same situation?
• Don’t fear to write about things you are interested in or
  from which you have experience of! Every creation is just an extend of its
  creator so don’t hesitate but part(s) of you in there.
• Meditation is good for writing inspiration. Just take it
  easy and enjoy. Best ideas pop out when you least expect them!
• Let the characters flow the story forward. Often the
  characters start to take the story into a direction which you weren’t planning,
  scrapping your ideas. Let it happen.