You know, I never thought it would come to this. I never thought I would be in here and yet, here I am. Okay, every time someone tells me what I'm writing, I always freeze. Two minutes later, I open my mouth and say "Well, I'm working on a vampire romance novel. And it's about this woman who gets bitten by a waitress...." and then I just freeze again. Okay, folks, I got the moral story of the novel but I just can't seem to actually get a hold of it. What I am asking is how can I take a hold of the reigns? In other words, can you please throw out some suggestions to help me get a better view on my novel.
I've read this post many times and I still don't know what you're asking. Are you asking for advice or asking us if we have the same problem as you?
I'm with Kio. What are you asking? The only thing we know of your story is that it is a vampire romance story about a woman who is bitten by a waitress. Are you asking for help because you don't know where the plot is going? Are you worried it may be a rip off of another story? You are trying to grab hold of the reigns of what?
I have said this many times and going to say it again. People get stuck when they don't have a story. It sounds like you need help making up a rich story. No one can help you with that for if they did then it would not be your story but theirs. ( I am assuming this is what you are looking for. If not then ignore me.) We can help you to discover your story if that is what you need. It sounds like you were inspired by a Vampire Story you just read. If that is the case I always suggest to people that there is nothing wrong with re-reading a book. You may want to re-read that book and find your muse once again. I am not sure if this helps. If you are looking for plot help then give us a more detailed synopsis of the story you are trying to tell.
I'm going to attempt a translation: Assuming my translation is close to what Vamp Queen is asking, my first suggestion is to draft an outline of the story. As it stands, it will be a very thin outline, so start filling in details. Now that is not how I generate my storylines. I don't write down my outlines, because I find it more flexible to arrange it in my head. But that's me, and I lnow I'm not among the majority in working that way. More writers than not need to lock that outline down on paper to see the overall structure and tweak it. It will take time. Pieces of the story will feel off to you, so you will make changes to see what works better for you.
I had the same issue until about 2 hours ago ^^ My advice is create characters - create their pasts and personalities and likes / dislikes, and of course their names etc. etc. Scan some pictures on deviantart.com or just google. Try and have a character sheet - one side each - for your main characters, and mix and match them in certain scenarios in your head - could trigger some ideas (which you may then note down =) Doing this always gives me a clearer view of where a story might go. Another way is - once you've got the characters (not necessarily all of them yet) down on a page, chill to some music, and try and match a song to them - aim for at least one each! (I might just be weird, staring at my screen like a catatonic, but I enjoy this lol xP) When you match the songs to them, think of how THEY would interpret the message in the song. It might just help give the character some direction, or maybe point them into a direction that you never considered for them before =]... Also, this helps you to get to know your characters in more depth, which always helps when coming up with plot ideas - and if getting to grips with your story is the issue, this might get your more engaged with it =-]! Or it might fail wonderfully - this is just what works for me =-]
I know this is not your intention, but that just offended me. Moving on, casteas16, thank you, but I am already doing that. I have an entire notebook with little interviews with my characters. And I still can't figure out what the hell I am trying to write a story on. I need a plot *Cringes* And I was hoping you would throw out some suggestions.
So you have characters and you have at least one event you want in your story. Where's the problem? Take that event and the characters involved and interrogate it. Why was she bitten? What happened after? What happened before? How did she react? How did the biter react? And so on. If you can answer those questions, you have a story.
I think you're limiting yourself by having all your characters known aside from their roles...? That's what I'm getting here. Personally, I think you should forget about all those characters and focus on a story plot and then bring in characters that fit.
I am sorry if I offended you. I just wanted to make a distinction between Story Development and Plot Development. Getting stuck in story development is caused by writers block. Getting stuck in plot development is usually caused by you writing your self into a corner. We can help with both but we need to know which one you are stuck on.
And I have all that down in chapter three. *Pulls hair* Godddddddddddddddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol What I am saying is that I am stuck. Do you guys want some chapters? So you can better comprehend?
If you want any more specific help, maybe instead of attacking the people trying to help you and getting frustrated, you could try to articulate exactly what it is you want help with. You started out asking for ways to "take the reigns", whatever that meant, now you want us to help you get unstuck, without telling us anything much at all about your own ideas for what you want to do with your novel. But basically, I stand by my advice from before. You have chapters already done, which means it's easy enough to just keep asking questions to find where to go next. I mean, surely by three chapters in you'd have some idea of the direction you want the story to go in, presumably you have some kind of rough idea of where things are going to end up, so just keep prompting yourself with questions until you get there. Try to keep your characters' motivations in mind and those should guide the direction. Kurt Vonnegut said that the easiest way to come up with a story idea is to take a character and make them want something, and it's pretty much the best advice in terms of plot development I've ever read.
Instead of telling you the story, why don't I show you? I am stuck on how to drive the story forward.
What is the next event in your plot that you need to get the story to and what , in your current plot, is preventing you from getting to that event?
You should totally take my Juicy idea. Name the MC Juicy and make her drink human blood and have a light saber in space, fighting evil monkey robots. I'd read it. Well, if you want to move the story forward, you should go out and see the world. Going out more often can make a stationary mind more active. Stimulate yourself somehow. Maybe you can write down all ideas that come to mind and somehow have all these ideas come together and form a plot. Other than that, I don't know how else to help you. All I got was that a waitress bit this lady and now she's all vampire. Question though, what exactly would prompt a waitress to BITE a client? Wouldn't she lose her job? If someone really bothered me, I'd much rather punch the client. Leaves less of a taste in my mouth, I believe. Then again, I'm no vampire, so I guess I wouldn't know.
I could be completely wrong here, but to me it sounds like you have a solid beginning to your story, you know your characters well enough to be situated on their personalities, but you don't know where it's going? I suppose my question would be then, what style of writing are you using? Have you planned your story completely, or even partially? Or, are you sitting down when you feel inspired and simply writing? If you're attempting to simply sit and write what comes to mind, and you're encountering this "frozen" feeling, then perhaps that isn't the style that suites you best. For me, I have what I consider AMAZING ideas, but when it comes time to sit and write, I often feel frozen. I don't know how I want my characters to get into the situations that I've previously created, I don't know how I want them to get to point D because I have no points A, B and C. As a recommendation, you may want to look into the Snowflake Method of writing. For me, it is the answer for my cluttered thoughts, frozen feelings and overall disorganization. It's a very helpful tool in planning ahead, and I suggest that you follow each step thoroughly without rushing, to get the most out of this method. You may find that it's not for you, or you may find that it is exactly what you needed. Anyway, that's my advice.
I think this is the problem. You are writing a generic vampire romance novel. There's nothing wrong with that if that's what you want to do, but I get the feeling you don't. I know this sounds like a stupid advice, but what I suggest is you forget the whole vampire romance stuff. Sort of. Vampires are fine. Romance is fine. So a vampire romance is fine. But the world does not need more Twilight. What I mean is what you should do is think about the basics of the story and figure out how to make it your own and unique. Think about Anne Rice. Vampires were a joke before she wrote "Interview with the vampire" and changed the entire vampire-genre forever. Sci-fi used to be nothing but spaceships, lasterguns and aliens before Frank Herbert wrote Dune. That novel alone changed sci-fi forever and made people take it seriously. And read the "House of Night" novels. They are very much just Harry Potter with female vampires, but they are much more than that and feels unique. And unliker Hairy Pothead, they are very well written and quite enjoyable. I'm not saying you should write a new Vampire Chronicles or Dune, but simply aim to make your story your own. Instead of the girl having a romance with a vampire, what if she was the vampire? How would she behave around that boy, and how would her family treat her? What if she fell in love with that boy, and he later turned into a vampire? Could she stick with the boy she loves, or should she leave him and try to be normal? What if he was the only vampire in the country and he turned her to make her his partner? They could be outcasts and hunted all across the country, but their only crime is being different. You get the idea. There are a lot of things you can do to make the story your own.
Stuck? Bah! No one can unstick you but you. Take a walk, watch a movie, read a book, do anything. Just get back to the story and don't worry about it. The first draft is called the rough draft for a reason.
If you're stuck on plot, I have one suggestion. Gail Cardon Levine actually got this into my brain. Write down ten possible (even ridiculous) story possibilities, then develop them a bit further. The so-called stupid ideas might be your best, and you can make a plot out of it. I've done this when I was stuck, and it helped a little. You can write general ideas, or specific ones. Doesn't matter. You can either develop some of the ideas further, or blend them.
You're lacking inspiration, obviously. And I don't really seem to grasp any concept you're following besides wanting to write about vampires. You can't force yourself to write just because you wanna write. First have a story to tell and you need to know it entirely. Once you have that then there's nothing that can stop you. You will simply let it out. The reason you are stuck is most probably because you haven't planned your story. Every time I'm starting to write something I write few sentences describing the whole story. Then I break those down in a bit more of them which I turn into chapters. Then as I write each chapter I keep its description just below the line to know what I need to stick to. But having trouble with being creative is only about the lack of inspiration.
Well, to be honest, if I don't have an idea for my story or have hard time writing about something, I would define my character's dramatic need (goal), which is abstract, and then write them in a concrete matter. I'll free-associate to generate ideas and then reduce the pages of ideas into one page, and then into one sentence. Once I define my subject, I would isolate the idea by finding WHO the character is about and then write the character's opposition (antagonist, in Plot Point 1), and so on. And finally, I would try to figure out how my story will end, and then write the begning and then the middle because it seems eaiser that way for me.
It really helps me to talk it through with a very good and helpful friend. Share your basic idea and tell them the points you are stuck on. It's great if they can throw ideas at you, especially if they are willing to let you tell them why the idea won't work, but then tweak it into a possibility. When I started my novel, it was a very general concept based on a dream that made no sense. I spent all my alone time that day just thinking about it in my head, exploring possibilities. Then, when I had something that at least resembled a broad story idea, I shared it with a friend. She listened, and helped me talk myself through everything until I had a huge and developed storyline. As I wrote, it morphed of course, but that gave me the jumping off point.
I also had recurring dreams about something, and it kept bugging me to the point where I wanted to write a story about it. Actually, I am writing a screenplay movie about it. It's amazing to see how you can take an unformed idea from your dream and then writing it into a story, especially a movie.
