by James L. Rubart, @jameslrubart
Do you ever get stuck in the middle of one of your stories? Yeah, you outliners have no idea what I’m talking about, but the rest of us? It happens.
So how do you get out?
Here are seven ideas to get your story moving again:
- Your Antagonist Gets What He/She wants- often we focus too much on what our protagonist wants and neglect the wants of our antagonist. Why? Because our protag is fighting against those things and we (and the reader) want our hero/heroine to win. But if we give our antagonist what they want that ramps up the stakes and makes it harder (more conflict) for our hero/heroine—which is always a good thing.
- I Didn’t Know I Had That Fear- of course your main character is going to have fears and wounds and flaws. But most of the time we have our protagonist’s knowing what those fears are (even if they have a hard time admitting it). What if you were to have them discover a fear they didn’t know they had?
- Bumping Into That Old Friend- I’ve reconnected lately with a number of friends I haven’t been in touch with for 40 years + and it’s given me lots of story ideas. What if you had your main character(s) do the same thing? What if that old friend they bump into turns out to be the last thing your main character expected, either good or bad?
- Bumping Into An Old Artifact- I’ve been going through a lot of old boxes and drawers lately, tossing stuff I just don’t need anymore. In doing so, I came across my first real baseball glove as well as drawings I made when I was around seven years old. Wow, did that bring back some memories! So what if you had your character find a long forgotten item from their past that changes the way they think about the present? (And the future.)
- What About the Weather?- few stories make use of the weather as fully as they could. And since we’re having quite usual weather these days (we hit 115 for the first time ever this summer where I live—and the pundits say it’s going to continue) making it a significant character in your story could be powerful.
- Poof! And He’s Gone- make a main supporting character vanish. No one knows where he’s gone, why he left, or what happened to him. Let the cool subplots abound.
- What’s With Her?- this is an idea from Donald Maas. Take your main character or a main supporting character and have them do something completely opposite of what they’d normally do. The stoic introverted school teacher gets up and sings a blistering rock song at the school’s faculty talent show.
Your turn. What have you used to get your story up and moving again?
How Do You Stand Up for Yourself When It Means Losing Everything? Allison Moore is making it. Barely. The Seattle architecture firm she started with her best friend is struggling, but at least they’re free from the games played by the corporate world. She’s gotten over her divorce. And while her dad’s recent passing is tough, their relationship had never been easy. Then the bomb drops. Her dad was living a secret life and left her mom in massive debt. As Allison scrambles to help her mom find a way out, she’s given a journal, anonymously, during a visit to her favorite coffee shop. The pressure to rescue her mom mounts, and Allison pours her fears and heartache into the journal. But then the unexplainable happens. The words in the journal, her words, begin to disappear. And new ones fill the empty spaces—words that force her to look at everything she knows about herself in a new light. Ignoring those words could cost her everything . . . but so could embracing them.
James L. Rubart is 28 years old, but lives trapped inside an older man’s body. He thinks he’s still young enough to water ski like a madman and dirt bike with his two grown sons. He’s the best-selling, Christy BOOK of the YEAR, CAROL, INSPY, and RT Book Reviews award winning author of ten novels and loves to send readers on journeys they’ll remember months after they finish one of his stories. He’s also a branding expert, audiobook narrator, co-host of the Novel Marketing podcast, and co-founder with his son, Taylor, of the Rubart Writing Academy. He lives with his amazing wife on a small lake in Washington state.