I’ve hit a wall with my novel and it’s driving me mad. I know exactly where I need to go, I’ve even jumped in and written others bits to see if I can slowly tie it all together, but I keep going back to the end of the 20k I’ve written in sequence and thinking ‘what now?’.
There are a few obvious problems. A lot of the story takes place in flashback form, or as descriptions from the main character. Two of the ‘leads’, or at least the most influential characters, spend most of the story away from the action and we only hear about them through the narrator. This was probably a mistake, because it’s causing me all kinds of problems, least of all the fact those who’ve read the first 15k didn’t like either of the characters, probably because they don’t speak, and they’re only ever described through the eyes of someone with a real chip on her shoulder. Of course they’re meant to be likeable. Well, one of them is.
Any tips on how to get over writers block?
Charl August 21, 2008 at 2:17 pm
The advice of Carrie Bradshaw is to go to sleep and not think about it too much and eventually it will come to you. I agree to some extent, maybe its stressing you out so much that you’re over analyzing it too much.
Take a step back, get some more advice from people who’ve read it – see where they see it going – then translate that into “Gemma-ness.” Think about it away from you being the author and imagine yourself as the reader, what would YOU expect as a reader to happen next, try not to complicate it too much!
Can’t wait to actually read it x