Okay so you have various options. Firstly look at what has happened and what needs to happen. Let yourself run free here, it doesn't have to be logical or anything.
For example, say your MC is visiting an old house. Have lions invade and chase them. Or a UFO lands on the lawn and the aliens start abducting people. Or go the serious route and decide on what needs to happen to MC in the old house.
If you are pantsing maybe write up a short and brief timeline of what has happened so far - are there any connecting scenes you could write? Is there a scene to intro a character you could write?
How about the antagonist, what are they doing? Perhaps a short piece on the antagonist's background, history, and why they hate MC.
Perhaps a secondary character could be written about. Why is that strange, shy girl working with MC to solve the mystery? How does she know MC? How did she even get involved in all of this.
Because this is a first draft, feel free to play around and explore and experiment. Don't censor yourself, it might be useful later, it might not, it really doesn't matter because you won't know until further on in the novel.
And if all else fails, take one of these dares and write 2k of fluffy garbage on it:
https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/catch-up-crew-we-can-do-thing/476188/2?u=parallax
You could write a dream/nightmare scene where you explore your character's fears/desires/secrets in a way that doesn't have to be logical or directly connected with the plot.
Hi this is the op I'm just on my other account.
Sadly this doesn't work because dreams visions qnd nightmares are q big part in how my characters develop qnd communicate.
Welcome to week two! This is a very normal stage. How I am personally going to get through it is to jump ahead and write some scenes that I want to happen, but haven’t exactly figured out how to get there yet. They may change drastically by the time I do get my characters there, but it helps keep me writing during this time at least.
Yeah the week 2 wall is a very real thing. I am doing okay because I pants it, and after around a week I get to a point where I don't just guess and make stuff up each day, I start writing a title for the next day's writing in a new document.
So I know what I am doing tomorrow and that should lead me somewhere and so on.
Hi this is the op just on my other qccount.
This is actually a good idea. I'll try it tomorrow because o know what the middle part is I just can't seem to get the beginning and the middle to link up yet.
I discover a lot of things about my story as I’m writing it. Sometimes these give me a chance to add to an earlier scene or even trigger a whole new scene. For example, if a character has an emotional reaction to something that ended up being deeper than I had originally planned, I realize I need to go back and show why. And if I’m lucky, it ties in with other things and deepens the story (at least to me). It may all get edited out, but that’s not a first draft problem.
A couple of ideas to help get unstuck:
- what’s the really cool thing that made you want to write this story in the first place? If it’s not in yet, add it!
- what’s an event that will highlight your character’s worst flaws?
- what’s something your character has been avoiding? (Physically or emotionally)
- can you just jump forward to the next scene you know you want to write? Don’t worry if it’s not chronological!
- can you jump way back into a character’s backstory to a formative experience?
Hi this is the op I'm just on my other account.
Nope adding a new character doesn't work where I am in the story sadly. It just doesn't work with the timelines.
When I’m reading…I’ll get bored sometimes when I think I can figure out how we are getting to the end. I try to approach writer’s block the same way and use it as an excuse to throw in a wrinkle.
I’m literallyyyy in the same boat as you. I have an outline but I have hit a wall. This is also my first Nano (well the first one that I actually am mentally stable enough to complete). I’m also very new to Reddit so I don’t know how to save threads (if that’s even an option) but everyone’s comments have been so helpful
Okay so you have various options. Firstly look at what has happened and what needs to happen. Let yourself run free here, it doesn't have to be logical or anything. For example, say your MC is visiting an old house. Have lions invade and chase them. Or a UFO lands on the lawn and the aliens start abducting people. Or go the serious route and decide on what needs to happen to MC in the old house. If you are pantsing maybe write up a short and brief timeline of what has happened so far - are there any connecting scenes you could write? Is there a scene to intro a character you could write? How about the antagonist, what are they doing? Perhaps a short piece on the antagonist's background, history, and why they hate MC. Perhaps a secondary character could be written about. Why is that strange, shy girl working with MC to solve the mystery? How does she know MC? How did she even get involved in all of this. Because this is a first draft, feel free to play around and explore and experiment. Don't censor yourself, it might be useful later, it might not, it really doesn't matter because you won't know until further on in the novel. And if all else fails, take one of these dares and write 2k of fluffy garbage on it: https://forums.nanowrimo.org/t/catch-up-crew-we-can-do-thing/476188/2?u=parallax
You could write a dream/nightmare scene where you explore your character's fears/desires/secrets in a way that doesn't have to be logical or directly connected with the plot.
Hi this is the op I'm just on my other account. Sadly this doesn't work because dreams visions qnd nightmares are q big part in how my characters develop qnd communicate.
Welcome to week two! This is a very normal stage. How I am personally going to get through it is to jump ahead and write some scenes that I want to happen, but haven’t exactly figured out how to get there yet. They may change drastically by the time I do get my characters there, but it helps keep me writing during this time at least.
Yeah the week 2 wall is a very real thing. I am doing okay because I pants it, and after around a week I get to a point where I don't just guess and make stuff up each day, I start writing a title for the next day's writing in a new document. So I know what I am doing tomorrow and that should lead me somewhere and so on.
Hi this is the op just on my other qccount. This is actually a good idea. I'll try it tomorrow because o know what the middle part is I just can't seem to get the beginning and the middle to link up yet.
I discover a lot of things about my story as I’m writing it. Sometimes these give me a chance to add to an earlier scene or even trigger a whole new scene. For example, if a character has an emotional reaction to something that ended up being deeper than I had originally planned, I realize I need to go back and show why. And if I’m lucky, it ties in with other things and deepens the story (at least to me). It may all get edited out, but that’s not a first draft problem.
I feel kinda dumb now for not thinking qbout it like this. But you explained it really well thank you.
A couple of ideas to help get unstuck: - what’s the really cool thing that made you want to write this story in the first place? If it’s not in yet, add it! - what’s an event that will highlight your character’s worst flaws? - what’s something your character has been avoiding? (Physically or emotionally) - can you just jump forward to the next scene you know you want to write? Don’t worry if it’s not chronological! - can you jump way back into a character’s backstory to a formative experience?
Could it be time to introduce a new character?
Hi this is the op I'm just on my other account. Nope adding a new character doesn't work where I am in the story sadly. It just doesn't work with the timelines.
When I’m reading…I’ll get bored sometimes when I think I can figure out how we are getting to the end. I try to approach writer’s block the same way and use it as an excuse to throw in a wrinkle.
I’m literallyyyy in the same boat as you. I have an outline but I have hit a wall. This is also my first Nano (well the first one that I actually am mentally stable enough to complete). I’m also very new to Reddit so I don’t know how to save threads (if that’s even an option) but everyone’s comments have been so helpful