YES you CAN get past that stupid roadblock (without GPS)

Welcome to part 2 of

YES you CAN get past that stupid roadblock

(when travelling WITHOUT GPS)

Part 1 was all about getting past the rock on the road when you're travelling with a definite route in mind. Now, things are a little more complicated - or maybe easier? - when you're just joyriding, travelling along any road that appeals of you, with only a vague idea of your goal (or your waypoints) in mind. You can't just teleport ahead, because you don't know where you want to go. You can't really recalculate your route, either, because you don't have one. 

So what does a pantser-style writer do when stuck? Here's some ideas: 

1. Retrace your steps  

When you can't go on, one thing you can do is go back. This is rather similar to recalculating your route, only because you have no exact idea of where you wanted to go beyond that roadblock, it requires a little more care. Take your work and read back, one paragraph or chapter at a time, and find a point where you feel comfortable taking a turn elsewhere. Maybe your character has lunch somewhere else. Maybe he doesn't kiss her just yet, or does kiss her when you though he would not. Maybe, maybe, maybe - it all depends on your story, of course.

As you do this, it is vital that you keep in mind what you DO know about your story. Everyone has some idea of what they want to write about, no matter how vague. You just haven't plotted it out. Take this story idea and compare the words/paragraphs/chapters to it. Anything that doesn't feel right - that's where you take a turn and bypass the roadblock. After that, the road is all yours.




2. Barge through

Sometimes getting past a roadblock requires brute force. Take a kitchen alarm clock (you know, those minute timers with the really annoying ring), set it to 10 minutes (or 20 or 30), and just WRITE. No matter how crappy, no matter how inane, how uninspired and how NOT what you want to be doing, just write, starting right there in front of the roadblock.

This is a chancy way of getting on, I admit. Either it works for you or it doesn't, but it should be worth a try. When I do this, what usually happens is I find myself on the other side of that big rock after a couple of pages of embarrasingly rubbish... "writing" .... but I AM on the other side. Even if I'll probably have to scrap the section in my first editing round.


3. Get out and walk


This is similar to barging through, only with a little more sublety and probably a little more time required. What you do is get out of your car and work your way towards the block one word, one sentence at a time. It'll be hard work, definately.

Especially once you're right in front of that big rock and still, one word, one sentence at a time, you keep going. Slowly. But you'll get past it in the end. After all, one drop of water at a time can hollow out a whole canyon. All it takes is time.


4. Go drink coffee


This worked fine for those with GPS, it can work just as well for those without. Take a break. Put aside your WIP and have a coffee, a cupcake, a sandwich, whatever catches your fancy. Sit and listen to people around you, or read a book, watch your favourite TV series. Anything but write - but only for a short while. When you get back to it, you may well find that your roadblock has dissolved into a few pebbles.


MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER: Don't lose sight of your goal

You are writing because you want to get your story idea down on paper and, ideally, share it with the world. Don't forget that in order to do so, you need to finish (this has always been a major problem for me - I have endless WIPs and only one that's vaguely done). You also need to stay true to the story as it presents itself to you. If you figure out halfway throught that the love interest should be the arch-enemy, that's fine. But you still need to finish writing, and in order to do so - with or without GPS - you need to have at least a vague idea of where you want to go. Even pantsers have some idea of what they're writing about - or perhaps who it is they're writing about. Keep that most important idea firmly in mind as you write, and you're less likely to encounter roadblocks or take a wrong turn. 

I wish you all the best with your writing and I hope these two posts helped!

YES you CAN get past that stupid roadblock (with GPS)

(Gone But Not Forgotten post below!)

This post comes to you by popular demand... I asked you a while ago what writerly topics you'd like to hear me rant on, and this one was by far your favourite! Enjoy!

Now, I've giving this a great deal of thought, so there will be two posts on getting past roadblocks. The first one applies to you...

When Travelling with GPS

If you are a plotter, then this is for you. Those of you who go by the seat of their pants, tune in next Thurday (March 10th) for Part 2 of YES you CAN get past that stupid roadblock (without GPS).

Imagine it's a nice, sunny day outside, and you plan to take your shiny new convertible out for a ride. You have a definite plan of where you want to go - in fact, you've plotted out the entire trip. The fresh air teases your hair, you smile as your favourite song plays on the radio.

Just goes to show that life doesn't like it if we make too definite a plan. Your path is blocked, and the obstacle seems insurmountable. Your hands grip the steering wheel until your knuckles turn white.

Now what? Your perfect plan lies in ruins, the path you have chosen might aswell no longer exist.

Don't despair! You dig out your phone and give me a ring.

"What what?" I ask. "You're stuck?"

Here's what I suggest you try:

Solution Number 1: Recalculate your route

Have you ever not taken the right turn when you're trying to follow a GPS' instructions? When you do that, most of them tell you they're 'recalculating the route'. Well, you can do that, too. Go back to your plan, your plot, and rethink your route.

Is there anywhere where you could take a different turn? Some side action you could build into more? A minor plotline that you need to cut out? Maybe a specific character is getting in your way and you need to re-design that one. Or get rid of him.

The easiest way to do this (I think) is to take your plot, go one step back from the 'roadblock', and try to figure out a different turn from there. If that doesn't work, take one more step back and so on. When this happens to me it's usually because I've missed a point in character developement or developed them in the wrong direction.

Solution Number 2: Teleport

Now here's the great thing about working from a plot (even a not very detailed plot) rather than flying by the seat of your pants. You can do magic - yep magic - and simply TELEPORT over the roadblock to the next plotpoint that strikes your fancy and tickles your muse. Easy peasy. Well, in theory. I'm not really a plotter (most of the time) so this is not an approach that works well for me...

The idea is to get your juices going again without stepping out of the story entirely. By skipping this spot you can carry on writing. You can always come back to it later to fix the problem. Maybe it will fix itself while you write the next chapter/scene/section of your story, you never know!

Solution Number 3: Go drink coffee

OK so this is not an exclusively a plotter roadblock solution. Taking a (short, mind you) break can be useful for getting everything straight in your head, for getting new ideas. Go sit in your favourite coffee shop/tea shop/bakery/park/mall, have something sweet or a sandwich or something, and just listen. Listen and watch everything and everyone around you.

Me, I love listening to people. You get the greatest ideas like that. And snippets of dialogue.

Of course you can also just sit and read a good book (preferably in the genre you're working in), or go see an art exhibition.

Then, once you've rested your mind a little, only then go back to your car and figure out how to solve the roadblock problem.

***

I hope this can help you! If you're less of a plotter and more of a pantser, or if you need some more advice, tune in for part 2 on this topic (on Thursday, March 10th).

How to Build a World (otherwise known as Research) Part 4

(secrets blogfest post below)

Welcome back to 

Tessa’s Worldbuilding Emporium! 

It’s time for the fourth installment (ok a bit early but hey), which is...

D. Where You Learn to Speak Your Own Language

Language is important to writers. 

No, that’s not right. Language is important for everyone. It’s VITAL for writers, never mind what it is you write about. Without language, we wouldn’t exist. Without language, what would be the point, anyway? 

Language comes in many shapes and sizes, all of them important. Here’s a few you might need as a writer, just off the top of my head: 

• Your Voice

As a writer, you need to find your own voice. Think of what you’re writing as a campfire story. You’re the one telling it, speaking the words, trying to gain everyone’s attention (someone’s unpacked a deck of cards, damn them) (no you can’t be excused because you hate public speaking, this is in your HEAD for goodness sake). Everyone has a different rhythm to their speaking, a different way of pronouncing words, of emphasizing emotions.  

It works the same way when you’re writing. Others can be your inspiration, your guide, your role model, but your writing, that’s all on you. Just you. 

Your voice, the way you write, that’s what will attract a reader (ok your story idea does, too, but even a stupid story can be fun to read if the writer’s voice is good enough). That’s why you need to find your voice, find the tone you want to set. 

So how do you do that? Sorry, I don’t have a solution for that, except to write, write, write. And write some more once you’re done, because a writer’s voice can change over time. 

• Your Character's Voice

Yep, your character has a voice, too. And not just your MC. 

Every single one of your characters has a voice, some more pronounced, some less so. How much attention you need to pay to it depends on how important the character is, or how important to the storyline it is for the reader to associate certain things with him or her. 

If you have a character who keeps saying y’all, your reader is going to make certain assumptions about his origin. That’s what happens if you let your character speak dialect of some sort or another. A word of caution, though - don’t overdo it. Assume your reader is of reasonable intelligence - you don’t need to have a whole sentence in dialect, some key words are usually enough. Too much and you’ll put off your audience. There are exceptions, of course - some writers can pull it off but you’re making your life harder than it needs to be. 

For a good example of dialect, read Karen Miller’s The Innocent Mage. The main character, Asher, starts off speaking in an almost incomprehensible voice, but as the story progresses, his speech clears up. It’s a wonderful indicator of his development. 

You don’t have to let your character speak any sort of regional dialect, of course, but everyone has words they like and phrases they use over and over again, usually without realizing it. Make sure your character has some, or if he doesn’t, let the reader know why not. 

• Definitions and Names

Think of this as an outpost of my previous installments on world building. One facet of learning to speak your language is figuring out what it is you’re writing about. You’ve made up your history, your rules, let your story idea develop. While you were doing that, you might have had occasion to use the odd word or two in a very specific sense. I’m talking about the kind of thing I’ve told you to note down once or twice before. 

If something has a signature meaning in your story, stick with it. Once you’ve made up your mind about part of your language, you need to justify every change to the reader or risk annoying them. An annoyed reader might not pick up another book with your name on it, so try to avoid that, will you?

Names are an extension of that. If you’re Shakespeare, sure, call a rose whatever you want, people will love you anyway. Nothing personal, but you ain’t Shakespeare (me neither) (although really who was Shakespeare, anyway?). If you call it a rose, then that’s what it has to be unless you explain otherwise. Things have names in the real world, and readers live in the real world. Readers are not characters in your book, after all (although wouldn’t that be fun?). 

The same goes for anything you make up. If you name it, stick with that name unless you have a good reason not to. Then explain why this is a good reason. Should it be something you’ve come up with, you can do one of three things: 

• everyone in the story knows what it is so you can’t explain (if everyone knows what it is, DON’T explain, it will seem artificial and that’s not good). Instead, you drop hints, or put the term in context, until the reader (you should assume a certain level of intelligence on their behalf - they picked up your book, didn’t they?) gets it. Don’t over explain, either. This is something you’ll have to try out on your Beta readers or some other unsuspecting victim, because believe me, you won’t be able to tell by yourself. 
• you have a character new to the thing - GREAT. You can explain it to him. 
• it’s a new thing - nobody knows what it is, so you can explain it to everyone

Please keep in mind that even when you’re explaining something, showing mostly goes before telling. A demonstration (think Star Wars and the Death Star) may work wonders, although this will depend on what exactly we’re talking about, here.

So you see, language is a very important thing to consider in your writing. A lot of it might happen on an intuitive (ie subconscious) level, but once you’re in the editing phase, you definitely need to pay attention. 

There, that's it for today. I hope you liked this fourth installment of the series, pop in on Saturday for the last section of this series. Find the previous posts here: 

Part 1, in which I will discuss How to get a Clue

HERE

Part 2, where you learn to Rule Your World

HERE

Part 3, in which you'll decide What Happened Before

HERE

Part 4, where you learn to Speak Your Own Language

TODAY

Part 5, where it All Comes Together

Saturday, 3rd July  - here

My own personal Quote of the Day

Do, or do not - there is no "try". 

                     Yoda

Words of wisdom!!!!

Unfortunately, I've never been good at listening to good advice. I don't know about you, but I haven't managed to tap into the Force yet. Things proceed at a broken-legged snail's pace, or rather said broken-legged snail would easily overtake me at the speed I'm currently writing.

But... as Oscar Wilde said: We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars. No truer words said there, either. Things may be difficult, complicated, seemingly impossible. We may be stuck in the muck of our every-day plod. Yet there's always something to look forward to, something to cheer you up, to make your day. The stars aren't going anywhere, and someday we will get there.

Screw Murphy, today's a good day.

(okay, sorry, but I needed that little rant)