Ask the Author: Ian Fortey
Answered Questions (1)
Ian Fortey
People do ask me this sometimes and, since I write a ridiculous amount, I have a handful of ways to work through it.
First - pre-plan any work. I outline my novels fully before writing them, broken down by intro, body and climax with beats in the middle based on rough page/wordcount goals. A typical outline is thorough, about 5,000 words or more, and covers every idea I want to include from start to finish. That way I never have to guess what the next part of the book will be when I'm writing, because it's already plotted. I can write about 10,000 words per day or more this way.
Failing that, my other trick is to just stop writing something. If I don't know what to say next, no need to waste time wondering. I'll write a different project for a while until I'm inspired to go back to the first one.
First - pre-plan any work. I outline my novels fully before writing them, broken down by intro, body and climax with beats in the middle based on rough page/wordcount goals. A typical outline is thorough, about 5,000 words or more, and covers every idea I want to include from start to finish. That way I never have to guess what the next part of the book will be when I'm writing, because it's already plotted. I can write about 10,000 words per day or more this way.
Failing that, my other trick is to just stop writing something. If I don't know what to say next, no need to waste time wondering. I'll write a different project for a while until I'm inspired to go back to the first one.
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