On Writing: Missing a Step

In writing, as in martial arts, you’ve got to mind your footwork.

Granted, the “footwork” is a little more abstract for a story. But you still need a surface for your story to move across (worldbuilding) and the right rhythms to make it move (pacing). Clever use of one can make up for weaknesses in the other. Take advantage of how you built your world, like a parkour traceur bouncing over and off obstacles, and you can compensate for story beats gone slightly ragged. And vice-versa; if your reader is engaged in the flow of dynamic action rising to the climax of facing the Evil Overlord, a few threadbare spots in your worldbuilding (where did that convenient taxi come from?) might be easily hidden under the rug.

But then come the times when you’re writing from point A and need to get to point E. You know points B, C, and D fit in between, you just need to write them-

Clonk.

And. The story. Sticks there. And it won’t move.

Would you call this writer’s block? It’s not the stereotypical “can’t write at all”. A clonk often means that you can still work on bits of the story before and after the stuck part. But that spot, like a rusted gear wheel, won’t move. And if you don’t find a way to fix it, eventually your whole story can freeze up.

Clonk is where the story’s missed a step, and possibly – painfully – pratfalled on its face. Leaving the frustrated writer with a headache. How do you fix it?

That’s going to be unique to the story in question. To get it moving again, you have to find out why it stopped.

Consider that a story is characters in motion. Check the footing; is there a hole in your worldbuilding you didn’t see when you first put the idea together? Check their form; will the actions they take through points B, C, and D actually result in them being at point E? And – here’s the trickiest one – do B, C, and D fit the pacing of this specific part of the story?

I wrote an archery scene in Colors. It’s a good scene, important to the characters, gets in worldbuilding and character development. But the piece of the draft I had it in kept jamming.

This is where having a friendly eye to trade reading written bits and chain-of-story-events with really helps. Once I was able to break it down to “this is the sequence of events that’s jammed”, said friendly reader pointed out that the scene was in the wrong spot for the emotional state of the character in question. Where I had it was in part of the “still flailing and trying to survive” section. Where it should go is at a later point, when our hero has moved past bare survival to “these are Good People, what can I do to make sure they survive?”

Scene now snipped. Along with another proposed related scene idea. Both of them I’ve set aside to tuck back in later, when I find the right spot. The resulting A to B to E now works. Whew.

When at first you don’t succeed… find out why, and keep going!