Some of the best writing advice I ever got was if you’re stuck on a scene or a line, the problem is actually about 10 lines back and that’s saved me from writer’s block so many times.
Magic Isn't Something You Choose
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I feel like I need an elaborate explanation
Often times, I find myself stuck on what a character should say next or what should happen in a scene to connect A to B or so on. When this happens, I fall into the trap of writing and rewriting the same few lines over and over, and becoming more and more dissatisfied every time until I give up.
But problem is almost never actually whatever line I’m trying to write at the moment; the issue is the stuff leading up to the line. Maybe there are structural issues with the set up, maybe I wrote a bit of dialogue that was out of character leading to a discussion that doesn’t make sense, maybe I’m missing a vital piece of exposition or expositing too much. It could be a lot of things, but the important part of the advice is to look back and be willing to consider changes to something earlier in the work (even if you’re really attached to like a piece of dialogue or a particular sentence or something) instead of trying to find a way to force out a scene that’s not working.
That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for explaining!
This is really helpful!
Woah! I never thought about that! Thanks!
I one hundred percent agree with this! Sometimes, when I have really bad writer’s block, I’ll take an hour break and then sit back down to read the entire work over again.
Whenever I start feeling irritated/confused, I put a notation by that section and keep reading. I mark where the rough patch starts and where it ends. Sometimes the parts after the rough patches are good, sometimes they’re not. Little rough patches are fine, but big ones will need to be addressed in the second edit!
When I get to the point where I’m in a rough patch that doesn’t end, I know I’ve found where I need to re-write. I go back to the start of that rough patch and copy everything from that point forward. I put the whole rough patch in a “graveyard” file (in case I need it later), then delete it from the main document.
Then I start writing again. It works 7/10 times!