5 Tips to Unstick Your Writing

If you're anything like me, you'll be cruising right along with your writing, whether that's outlining, drafting, or revisions, only to come across something that completely stops you in your tracks. It's not writer's block per-say, but similar. You just don't know how to proceed, or get your characters from point A to B, or some other problem.

I have faced this many times, so I've developed a few tricks of my own to try when it happens. Today I want to share them with you, so hopefully you too won't get stuck in the swamp of stuck writing. Don't forget to share any tips you have in the comments.

Work Backwards

Working backwards is perfect for when you have your characters in one spot, but aren't sure how to get them to the next one. For example, let's say the prince just learned of the princess in the tower, but you aren't sure how he gets to the point of actually finding the hidden tower.

Start by writing down your starting and ending points. Then, starting with the last one, work your way backwards through the steps the story will take to get there. So your prince finds the tower, but before he does that, he probably rode into the woods in the direction of the tower. Before that, I would guess he talked to some nearby villagers about what direction the old lady went when she leaves the village. And so on.

This method can take some thought, but it's quite useful to help you look at your problem another way. You can also combine this with some of the other ideas if you need more inspiration on how to get your characters around.

List 12 Ideas

I forget where I even read this idea, but ever since I learned of it I use it all the time. It's one of the easiest and yet hardest ideas here. All you do is take a piece of paper and write down twelve ideas for what could happen next in your story. The thing is, you can't stop until you've got twelve ideas, no matter how dumb or bizarre they may be.

I like this one because it forces you to think outside the box. Twelve ideas doesn't sound like much, but normally I run out of the more plausible and normal ones by about number eight. Then I end up with the weird ones like "everyone gets typhoid" or "character blank shoots someone with their laser eyes". But while you're trying to think of twelve different things, you may stumble across a gem of an idea you hadn't thought of before.

Once you've completed your list, all you have to do is look through it and decide which idea works best for your novel. You don't even have to use just one. I've combined several ideas I liked before. You can use this method anytime you get stuck at any point of the writing process.

The Snowflake Method

For this idea, you'll need a pencil and a piece of paper, plus your imagination. It's kind of similar to the 12 ideas list, but more complicated. Start by writing what point you're stuck at in the middle of your paper, then circle it. From there you make a branch for each idea you have of where the story could go next. From each of those ideas, you continue working out what could happen next, creating more and more branches like a snowflake (thus the name).

I know it sounds a little complicated, but this is perfect for when you have a lot of ideas of where your story could go, but are unsure which will work best. This way, you can explore multiple options without having to write them all out then realize that it's not working the way you wanted. It just takes a little time that will probably save more time in the long run.

I use this method less often, but when I do it's normally during the outlining or writing stages of my novel. It's great for brainstorming and coming up with all sorts of ideas and options. It's almost like creating a ton of parallel universes with every new choice.

Write a Ton

Sometimes when I'm stuck and have no ideas, what helps me the most is to just write. I open up a new document or text in Scrivener and then just write about the situation my characters are in and all my thoughts about it. It helps me to discover new things about the way I feel about a certain part of my novel and once and a while I discover a genius new ideas for what could happen.

I know this might not work for everybody, but you should give it a try. Even just write for five minutes about what's going on and what you think about where it could go can be super useful. I've written probably hundreds of words in my writing career just trying to brainstorm things with myself.

The nice thing about this is you can use it at any point in the writing process. Whether you're stuck in the outline, the draft, or the revisions, it always helps me to simply sit down and write about it. Sometimes you may discover that you need to change something so that way it doesn't work you into a dead end. I did this the most with my latest novel Heart Magic. It was book three and needed a lot of thinking on how to connect all the elements.

Do the Unexpected

Another piece of writing advice I once heard was "If you're stuck, drop a dead body from the ceiling". Do you literally have to do that? It depends on the story. But the point is, you should do something that's completely unexpected just to get you out of the rut and back into the flow. Maybe what you did won't work later, but you can always remove it. Or you might really like what happened and decide to keep it.

Got a boring conversation that's going nowhere? Have someone come in screaming about fire. Things getting slow in your thriller? Jump scare. Detective has no clue where to go? Drop a dead body from your ceiling. Find something to shake things up and get your creative juices flowing again.

What do you do when you're stuck? Have you tried any of these tips? Tell me in the comments.

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