*looks at taxes for two different countries' governments and crumples into tiny ball*
UGH don't remind me... I KNOW I'll leave it to the last minute, like I always do; I keep telling myself that it takes me 2 hours (or 3 maximum) to add up the numbers and fill out the form, but somehow I never take those 2 hours until I absolutely have to (also I have a history of filing my taxes a day or two late...)
But I actually remembered a few more tricks for stuck-up stories:
1) Backtrack. The usual advice is to go back 10 lines or so, but I usually look a few paragraphs, maybe a page or so backwards from the current last line and see if I can find the point where I started writing myself into a corner (or where the conversation started veering off topic, or whatever). If you can find the spot, cut off from there onwards and start over.
2) Write non-linearly. I prefer doing things from start to finish; that makes for less seams to tidy over, but sometimes writing THE Scene at the end/middle/middle of end that I've been dying to write since line one gets me back into the story. (The problem is that you still have to work out the parts in between, once you've written the fancy stuff, but it can actually be easier if you see where you're going.)
3) Outline. I write short stuff, so usually I don't bother with outlines. But for any longer (say 10k+) I need some notes at least. And it can work as sort of brainstorming; just the other day I had a scene that started out as outline notes that refused to be concise. (And it's a WIP I started posting back in 2016... I live in hope of finishing it sometime this decade XD)
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2019-03-05 06:19 pm (UTC)UGH don't remind me... I KNOW I'll leave it to the last minute, like I always do; I keep telling myself that it takes me 2 hours (or 3 maximum) to add up the numbers and fill out the form, but somehow I never take those 2 hours until I absolutely have to (also I have a history of filing my taxes a day or two late...)
But I actually remembered a few more tricks for stuck-up stories:
1) Backtrack. The usual advice is to go back 10 lines or so, but I usually look a few paragraphs, maybe a page or so backwards from the current last line and see if I can find the point where I started writing myself into a corner (or where the conversation started veering off topic, or whatever). If you can find the spot, cut off from there onwards and start over.
2) Write non-linearly. I prefer doing things from start to finish; that makes for less seams to tidy over, but sometimes writing THE Scene at the end/middle/middle of end that I've been dying to write since line one gets me back into the story. (The problem is that you still have to work out the parts in between, once you've written the fancy stuff, but it can actually be easier if you see where you're going.)
3) Outline. I write short stuff, so usually I don't bother with outlines. But for any longer (say 10k+) I need some notes at least. And it can work as sort of brainstorming; just the other day I had a scene that started out as outline notes that refused to be concise. (And it's a WIP I started posting back in 2016... I live in hope of finishing it sometime this decade XD)