Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Courtney Maum on November 15, 2010 at 3:37pm

I handle it with red wine. That is to say, I don't handle it! I'm a recovering novelist working now on short stories and I can not get my characters to DO anything. I had a teacher say to me once that the worst thing you can do is have a character stand in place and furiously remember something, but unfortunately, my characters do this a lot.
Try identifying your characters' desires. What drives them? Another teacher told me to put my characters up against their greatest fears. This has always helped.

Permalink Reply by Q Lindsey Barrett on November 15, 2010 at 5:53pm

fear and wine--whoo hoo

but seriously, relax a bit yourself, don't let your characters off the hook ever -- great advice

Permalink Reply by Penelope L Mace on November 15, 2010 at 3:46pm

I've had characters and a dim idea of a story that hung around for years before the whole thing finally gelled. One thing i do at times is write a journal entry about the characters and story - just brainstorm on paper - you know - say - oh gosh I have this girl Babs and she's a ditz and I don't know what to do with her and ....make yourself write for so many minutes or # of words and just see what spills out.

Permalink Reply by Totsymae on June 30, 2011 at 7:00pm

I've been working on a small collection of short stories.  When I'm stuck, sometimes I write through it, whether it makes sense or not. With that, I can only get so far and then I step away  and go to something that does work. I may give myself a couple of days, if it takes that and go back to it. The thing about that is, I'm constantly thinking about it, so by the time I sit down again, I feel okay about what direction I need to go. I've heard pros say if you know how the story will end, the story is that much easier to write, so maybe think about an ending first. if you can imagine that. I've not quite managed that yet.

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