REVIVING YOUR STORY OR STARTING ANEW

If your prose has become less than stellar or your story seems to have lost all sense of direction or falls flat, take a moment to truthfully answer the following questions. The questions and your answers can provide clues as to how you might resurrect your project or even start work on a new story.

 

Have I tired of my story? If so, why?

Do I know what is and isn’t working? Or, do I need professional help to figure this out?

Have I resorted to lazy writing (instead of searching for those perfect nouns that suggest specificity and using active verbs instead choosing passive, weak ones?

Do I know what my story’s protagonist wants and needs?

Have a I created a worthy adversary for my main character? In certain genres, such as the dramatic thriller, a worthy adversary can shine a spotlight on the talents and skills of the protagonist.

Is my main character a cardboard cutout or fully imagined with a past history, a current life problem pressing upon him or her that requires a solution, and intriguing possibilities for a future, depending on choices he or she makes?

Have I created a roller coaster plot with rising and falling action to push the story forward and also occasionally pull it back or spin it in a new direction?

Have I written my story in a cinematic way so that my words conjure vivid mental images for my readers?

For each character, are his or her dialogue patterns unique and does the dialogue ring true when that character opens his or her mouth to speak?

Have I chosen a universal theme–one that will have wide resonance?

Does the beginning of my story start in media res or take too long to get going?

Have I used details, situations, and dialogue to create sufficient verisimilitude?

Would the introduction of a ticking clock (something that has to happen or a problem that must be solved within a certain time) help create drama in my story?

Have I created scenes with sufficient rising tension (the heart and soul of dramatic writing)?

If working within a particular genre, do I have a full and complete understanding of the required elements of that genre and have I implemented them in my story?

Only you, the author of your story, can truly answer these questions. If you answered no to many of the questions,  revisit and revise your story to change each no into a yes.

When authors tire of working on a book, it’s often because they have either written their protagonist into a corner and don’t know how to get him or her out. Or, the author hasn’t figured out how to keep stuff happening (the solution is often to create a problem).

When I feel the story is going flat, I use a simple technique to get it all going again.  I ask myself what can go wrong for the protagonist? What else can happen to ruin his or her day? What new problem might boomerang to create other problems?

I forget the name of the author who advised, “Put your protagonist up in a tree and throw rocks at him or her.” In other words, don’t ever make the solutions easy, don’t give your main character easy outs. If you offer easy solutions, the story will lose steam and the main character will not seem as strong. Easy outs demonstrate lack of ingenuity. You don’t want creative laziness or weak writing to be the reason your book is rejected by a publisher. Remember that in dramatic writing as in art, put the lightest light against the darkest dark and you create drama. It’s powerful, dramatic writing that keeps readers turning pages.

Do the work of brainstorming your story before you begin to actually write scenes. Know where your plot is going based on the choices your protagonist and other important characters make. If you are not an outline type of person, create a storyboard of stick up notes–one per scene and arrange them on a wall or table until the story is finished.

Know your protagonists’ wants and needs (a person’s wants and needs can conflict) and give the lead character an issue or problem or challenge to make him or her vulnerable so we’ll care. A Hollywood screenwriting teacher that I admire has counseled writers to create strong, believable protagonists that we care about so that the audience knows who to root for and to clap for at the end of the movie.

Don’t put all the back story in the opening of your book. Most first novels get pages cut and one of the biggest reasons is that they have dumped all those tedious little details about the protagonist’s life in the opening of the book. No. Don’t do that. Start on a day that is different with a critical situation that plunges us headlong into the story.

Aim for three scenes to a chapter and write good, tight transitions. Get into the scene late and out early and milk the drama.

Don’t wait for inspiration; it might not ever come. Working writers write. Period. Inspiration is a gift. A visit from the Muse is a blessing. Getting lost in the flow of  Kairos (God’s time) might happen, but don’t count on it. Get into the habit of placing your fingers onto the keyboard and pushing words out, whether reviving a story or starting a new one. And keep asking and answering those story questions. You might be surprised to discover how much your story begins to excite you again. Or, you might experience the stirrings of a new story that has picked you to give it life.