Looking for Brainstorming Suggestions

Last week, I mentioned it was taking me too long to figure out Isto. A lot of you guys had great suggestions of reading through my existing work to rekindle my passion. While I do enjoy my story and would love to write in it, I’m stuck on a single issue.

I don’t know how they defeat the monsters.

This is problematic because I’m the only one who truly understands my “magic” system (technically, it’s not called magic, thus the quotes), so I’m not sure how I can brainstorm or who I can brainstorm with. And if I do figure out the solution, I can’t just drop it in at the end. It needs to be hinted at throughout the story so that it’s a logical and believable solution.

Thus the reluctance to write. (In this story, anyways. I’ve gotten over 5K in other books, though none of those are slated to be completed this year.)

I’ve spent time figuring how the powers play together. I’ve even figured out how another group’s deity set relates to my two primary ones. Heck, I’ve even built an origination mythos for these deities. (Once upon a time, there were three siblings. The firstborn felt it was his right to rule the world…)

But all of that is high level. It gives reason to why certain characters appear in book 2, why these characters act the way they do in book 3, and why they are the antagonists in book 4.

Unfortunately, I still don’t know how the heroes defeat the monsters in book 2. It has to do with the two primary divine powers, but not the characters in the previous paragraph. I know one set of power hunts the other (and vice versa), but can also be harmed by a handful of specific power users (and vice versa). I even made a very clear chart.

But at the end of Isto, my four heroes have non-standardized powers.

I’m running circles in my brain. I don’t know how to fix it. And it’s frustrating as all heck.

I’ve tried building a tree chart, and I’ve tried mind mapping software. I know how events in book 2 smoothly roll into the conflict in book 3. But no matter the approach, I run into the “magic” wall.

I know no one can tell me how to fix it. But how do you figure out events?

What brainstorming methods do you implement? Have you ever been stuck on a particular issue? Do you ever encounter trouble adhering to world rules?

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