Christopher Paolini
Take a Walk: I’ve found that taking a walk and talking or thinking about various solutions is a great way to untangle problems.
Stop Procrastinating: Try to eliminate distractions. And set times when you do nothing but write. Ultimately, it is force of will and love of the story that will pull you through. Without determination and courage, time will roll by and you will have accomplished nothing. It takes hard work to write a book.
Make a List: Identify what it is you are trying to say. What information do you need to convey? What happens next? Where do the characters need to go and what do they need to do? Once you have your list, arrange the items into chronological order. This leads to the following suggestion.
Outline the Plot: Whether you are writing a nonfiction article or a story, first sketching out the general structure will give you a template to follow. In my own case, I tried to write several books before I wrote Eragon. They flatlined after five or six pages because I didn’t know where the story was going. It wasn’t until I learned how to plot a story that I was able to create the outline for the Inheritance Cycle. Story, by Robert McKee, helped me with this. Though Story is intended for screenwriters, I found McKee’s principles and advice invaluable for structuring a novel. If you outline your story before you begin writing, you can put your energy into writing it the best way possible and not worry about what is going to happen next.
Stop Procrastinating: Try to eliminate distractions. And set times when you do nothing but write. Ultimately, it is force of will and love of the story that will pull you through. Without determination and courage, time will roll by and you will have accomplished nothing. It takes hard work to write a book.
Make a List: Identify what it is you are trying to say. What information do you need to convey? What happens next? Where do the characters need to go and what do they need to do? Once you have your list, arrange the items into chronological order. This leads to the following suggestion.
Outline the Plot: Whether you are writing a nonfiction article or a story, first sketching out the general structure will give you a template to follow. In my own case, I tried to write several books before I wrote Eragon. They flatlined after five or six pages because I didn’t know where the story was going. It wasn’t until I learned how to plot a story that I was able to create the outline for the Inheritance Cycle. Story, by Robert McKee, helped me with this. Though Story is intended for screenwriters, I found McKee’s principles and advice invaluable for structuring a novel. If you outline your story before you begin writing, you can put your energy into writing it the best way possible and not worry about what is going to happen next.
More Answered Questions
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more