When Writers Get Stuck…
The writer… / A strategy might be to…§ wrote a beginning and cannot imagine the piece going in any other direction.
§ wrote in an order that no longer makes sense.
§ had trouble deciding how much background needs to be explained.
§ had difficulty deciding what should come next.
§ has not familiarized the reader enough with the character(s).
§ has not fully helped the reader to know the setting.
§ gave the piece a “sappy” feeling with only a single emotion in it.
§ wrote something that (s)he does not like; the piece is not saying what (s)he wants to say.
§ has difficulty making decisions about what is important to include.
§ wrote things that seem too simple or obvious.
§ blurted out everything in the first couple of paragraphs and has nothing more to say.
§ feels the writing is flat and boring.
/ § write three very different introductions for this piece.
§ outline/map the piece and use the outline or map to re-arrange the chunks.
§ list what the writer thinks the reader knows and what the reader needs to learn.
§ outline / map events in four different ways.
§ write out several pages of notes about each character as a person.
§ draw the setting in details from various angles or describe it using the “show, don’t tell” strategy.
§ write the incident from several points of view.
§ write a page of the piece in two other possible genres.
§ write “What I want the reader to believe about my piece” at the top of the page and write a response to that.
§ interview someone else who feels differently about the topic; write down what is said.
§ divide a page into sections corresponding to the sections of the piece; jot down notes about what should be released to the reader in each section and what is to remain a mystery in that section.
§ read, copy good parts, and make notes about the craft used in literature pieces that are written in the same mode.
Adapted from Time for Meaning by Randy Bomar