writingwithfolklore:What Happens Next? I a...
What Happens Next?I always find myself freezing on a really good writing streak because I end off the chapter and have to face the question of what should come next… and I don’t know. Even when I’m working on a story with an exhaustive outline, I still get stuck on the getting from A to B, how do we get to where we need to go, what comes next?
Luckily, screenwriting taught me a very easy fix. When creating your characters, you want to create three main aspects: a private life, a professional life, and a personal life, which is to say, their relationships and family life; their job or school (or the stuff they have to do but maybe don’t necessarily want to); and their hobbies, what they do in their spare time, passions, etc.
This is so when you face the question “what comes next” you can jump into any of these lives as a starting point.
So say your main character and their best friend just fought and broke up. The scene ends. Your roadmap says there needs to be a bit of a pause in between now and them getting back together, but what do they do in between those points?
Consider how their family life, professional life, or private life could be impacted by what’s occurred. Maybe you’ve mostly been focusing on private and family, so you choose professional, the next scene has them back at school. There’s no one to talk to since their only friend is mad at them—to raise the stakes, in this day at school the next big plot point happens (their uncle, thought dead, appears for a moment outside the classroom window!) of course all they want to do is tell their friend, and of course, that’s the one thing they can’t do yet.
This is just a general example, but it goes to show there’s a lot to explore within your character’s different ‘lives’, so next time you get stuck on the “what comes next?” try exploring one a bit deeper with them. There might be something super interesting there to find.
Good luck!
