Problems starting the next chapter

Maybe you can't write it because you already know what happens, so your creative brain is bored and can't be bothered. It wants to be surprised.

Try ditching what you think is going to happen, and introduce some unexpected element.

First, stop deleting. Write it, leave it, and keep going. Wait a couple of weeks until you re-read it, and by then you may have gained enough distance to objectively evaluate whether you need to re-write.

If you can't just leave it and plow ahead, try switching your medium or process. If you're writing primarily on the computer, try writing long-hand. If you always write in blue pen on yellow legal pads, write with black ink in a spiral.

Maybe write a detailed outline for the scene and move forward with that instead of the fully fleshed out version. Or write a synopsis paragraph -- "X does Y to Z, then these things happen, and they are important to the plot because of A" -- and keep going. The important thing is to finish, and if you keep writing and deleting the same chapter over and over again, it'll probably be a long time until you write "the end."

BethS said:

Maybe you can't write it because you already know what happens, so your creative brain is bored and can't be bothered. It wants to be surprised.

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As a dedicated pantser, I wholeheartedly endorse this interpretation. I'm only prolific when I don't know what's going to happen.

fnu_lnu said:

First, stop deleting. Write it, leave it, and keep going.

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Yup

The first few sentences are always hard*, but they aren't set in stone. Write them, and the next and the next. later you can decide of you like them or not, but on a draft try no to worry about it. Get it written, them worry about getting it right.



*understatement of the century. Sometimes it take a few words to get your motors running -- not unusual at all. Just keep going once you;re fired up

I tend to write in drafts so when I get to a chapter (or chapters) where I can't seem to find my stride, I write down as much as I can think of as far as what I think needs to be in the chapter. This is usually in summary form, but sometimes I have a few lines of dialog that I *know* are important to the scene but I can't figure out how to get to them. So I just summarize the chapter, write out whatever dialog I can think of and then keep going.

Sometimes those summaries are pretty detailed. Or they have three of four pages of story in the middle and a couple of summary paragraphs on either end. I can always go back and fill in more later, but not if I get stuck redoing the same thing over and over again.

I too, tend to write chronologically. Until it doesn't work for me any more. Then I skip ahead as much as necessary. What is a solution for me may not be a solution for you, but if writing beginning to end isn't working, you need to try something else. (Sometimes it works simply by showing yourself you can't do it differently and then you can do it the way you're used to again.)

Aggy, process? What process?

Stop deleting what you write. That's a dead end road. It may be your subconscious mind is telling you the story shouldn't go where your conscious mind wants it to go.

When I write, I have not the faintest clue what will happen on the next page until I actually write it. If I write the opening correctly, I don't need to know what happens next. What I've already written determines what will happen on the page I'm working on at the moment, and this continues until I finish the novel. I always look back, never ahead.

Anyway, rewriting can be good, but deleting is almost always bad. Don't do it.

If this is your first novel you're being super-critical expecting words to flow out in perfect sequence, and not doing yourself any favours by deleting stuff.

Whatever you end up writing- leave it and keep going , otherwise you will never finish.

It's a learning curve and only by writing to the end will you learn.

it's only your 1st draft...it's not supposed to be perfect. just make a note and let the story go wherever, work it back on track. then you can go back and edit later. It's not worth stopping over in a 1st draft.

I'm running into a similar problem in the novels I'm trying to work on now. I used to always get stalled out in novels, because I'd try to outline. Knowing what *had* to happen killed the process for me. I'd end up staring at a blank page, thinking, They have to get up this mountain, but I have no idea how, let alone how to make the scene interesting, but if I skip it, it will feel like a cheat, or, They need to disrupt a council meeting, but I know nothing about council meetings and can come up with no realistic or plausible scenario for all three characters to wrestle an invite or sneak into the palace to do this.

Logical/practical how-tos are a big obstacle for me sometimes. I suspect they are for other writers too, which explains the plethora of sleepy or bribeable guards or mysterious sewers or forgotten passageways beneath palaces and cities. Oh, and those mysterious mountain people that either capture travelers or help them out right before they die of exposure. A fierce determination to avoid such cliches means I sometimes write my characters into corners.

I finally managed to complete a novel by just writing and not worrying about where the story was going exactly. If it felt like they needed to have a conversation, they had a conversation. It it felt like they needed to go do something, they did it. I got a huge, overwritten mess, which I then trimmed and rearranged into a coherent story thanks to a lot of help and feedback from critting partners and beta readers.

But now I have two new novels I'm working on, and even though I haven't outlined, I have a clearer idea where each story "needs" to go. I also know a lot more about things like plot catalysts and so on, and where in the story certain things need to happen.

So I'm about 15% of the way in, and I need for something to happen in the scene I'm writing that will set my two protagonists on their separate paths for the middle part of the story.

And I'm hung up, because I can't figure out how to make it happen in in one chapter in a way that doesn't feel contrived. Argh! Or I'll get hung up because I'll be consciously thinking things like, Oops, two dialog-heavy chapters in a row. I need one with more action now, but how?


The best suggestion I have is to skip the chapter or scene that is bugging you. Just write a short summary of what you feel *must* happen to get the story to the next place. Then start with your next chapter. Sometimes creative solutions to earlier problems will shake loose when you write on.

Well, for me, "this plot-catalyzing event has to happen in this scene" would create the same issue. I'm stuck, because I just can't think of a logical way to make such and such happen, or how to put the words on the page that describe it. Sometimes a chapter is several scenes occurring one after the other, or even jumping between different povs or locations in a temporally linked way, but sometimes a chapter is just one scene.

I tend to think in terms of chapters because that's how most stories I read are organized, and it's what comes naturally to me. Plus, I'd have a heck of a time finding my way around my manuscript without the numbered chapter breaks.

Every writer is different, though, and maybe thinking outside the chapter box is something that could work for the OP.

Roxxsmom said:

Well, for me, "this plot-catalyzing event has to happen in this scene" would create the same issue. I'm stuck, because I just can't think of a logical way to make such and such happen, or how to put the words on the page that describe it. Sometimes a chapter is several scenes occurring one after the other, or even jumping between different povs or locations in a temporally linked way, but sometimes a chapter is just one scene.

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Okay, this is counter-intuitive I know but it’s true: very rarely is there ever any plot-point in particular or plot-point that must be done in a particular way that can’t be replaced by something else. Obviously, you’ll need to alter a few events that happened before and will happen after this new event, so you won’t want to do something completely outside the original scope, but seeing how you only have to make it appear as one seamless line of events, you have the advantage. Remember it's not real…you are making it up.

You may say how do you keep track…by keeping a scene log or diary. In this scene, this and that takes place. Very dry, very simple, just what happened.

One of the best things about writing is that you do not have to keep ideas where you first thought of them. That goes for sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters and whole novels.

Neegh said:

One of the best things about writing is that you do not have to keep ideas where you first thought of them. That goes for sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters and whole novels.

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Exactly. I save paragraphs or scenes I love from works I've discarded all the time, or move things around or whatever.

zanzjan said:

^This is a really good point.

I would add that if you're both a pantser and a fairly linear writer, or someone who tends to deviate a fair bit from your original outline, you may not know where those scenes/chapters belong in your novel (or if they belong to another story entirely) until you've reached the end of your first draft.

Also, it's totally okay for a first draft to be a complete hot mess that makes no sense at all. That's why we have second drafts (and thirdsies and fourthsies and however many it takes.) Can't fix words you didn't write.

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Yeah well, all writing is rewriting after all.

I have this problem all the time. It's usually because what I thought was going to happen (the thing that is planned in my head) isn't actually what happens. I'm learning that when I get really stuck and just can't write something - and that includes deleting what I've already written because it's so damn bad - it's because I'm writing the wrong thing. If I stop and go for a walk and consider other options, when I come back and try to write a new and different version of the scene, it often works. And I'm not saying I change everything in the scene - sometimes it's getting to the main event that's the problem, other times its the main event itself, but always when this happens, it means I'm writing the wrong thing.

KiwiLady said:

I have this problem all the time. It's usually because what I thought was going to happen (the thing that is planned in my head) isn't actually what happens. I'm learning that when I get really stuck and just can't write something - and that includes deleting what I've already written because it's so damn bad - it's because I'm writing the wrong thing. If I stop and go for a walk and consider other options, when I come back and try to write a new and different version of the scene, it often works. And I'm not saying I change everything in the scene - sometimes it's getting to the main event that's the problem, other times its the main event itself, but always when this happens, it means I'm writing the wrong thing.

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Yes. Always write the story the way it wants to be written.

Yup, like BethS and Katharine Tree said - it's probably because it's boring you.

If you already know where it's going, the reader probably does too.

Even if you have a rough idea of what you want, there should still be room for adventure.

Stories are like slippery snakes, they like to bend and twist in strange directions. If you spend all your time trying to hold it in place and forcing it into the shape you want it, you'll run out of energy. It's draining.

Try starting the next chapter with something completely unrelated.

When I'm stuck, I sometimes do that.

Say I need to write about a woman trapped in a tower by an evil witch. But I know the character really well, and it's all a bit stale.

Well, start by throwing in an existential observation or something: She held the thread of the spinning wheel between her fingers, the fleece twisting together as though the Norns had sealed her fate... The clouds sped overhead. She envied them their lofty view. From up there they could look out across the rivers and valleys [enter poetic description of everything she can't see]... A bluebird sat on the window, its wings spread in the afternoon sun. A message attached to its leg...

You can start by picking something seemingly insignificant (clouds, thread, windowsill) and giving it a purpose, or making it an outlet for thoughts you can't express through dialogue or action.

You can throw something completely unexpected in there (bird with a message) - something you weren't expecting when you sat down to write...

Trust in the story. Once you start the sentence, something else will follow. Let it unravel itself.

Worst comes to the worst, you can delete it in the edit, but you can't edit out monotony.

zanzjan said:

^This is a really good point.

I would add that if you're both a pantser and a fairly linear writer, or someone who tends to deviate a fair bit from your original outline, you may not know where those scenes/chapters belong in your novel (or if they belong to another story entirely) until you've reached the end of your first draft.

.

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I know some write this way, but I can't even imagine making it work. I'm a linear writer, and linear means getting everything where it belongs the first time through.

I don't do drafts, though, so maybe this is the difference. I rewrite and edit each page as I go, and when I reach the last page, the novel is finished. I never go back through. This means everything has to be in place.

I don't know how pure pansters could write without getting everything in place on the first pass.

I'm not a pure "panster," but I know that one of the reasons I do drafts and don't have absolutely everything planned is that I have ideas as I go along.

Usually better ideas than I started with.

Jamesaritchie said:

I don't know how pure pansters could write without getting everything in place on the first pass.

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If I had to get everything in place on the first pass, I'd never finish

Good that there's so many ways to write a novel, innit? Means there's bound to be a way for the OP that will work.

Jamesaritchie said:

I don't know how pure pansters could write without getting everything in place on the first pass.

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I know pansters who write the whole thing out of order. Different brain wiring, I guess.

I'm generally a linear writer, but I've occasionally written scenes that I thought came next, but soon realized they actually needed to wait until later in the story, if I was going to use them at all. That doesn't happen often, though.

JHFC said:

I'm not a pure "panster," but I know that one of the reasons I do drafts and don't have absolutely everything planned is that I have ideas as I go along.

Usually better ideas than I started with.

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I subscribe to the notion that there's ALWAYS a better idea, and a writer should ignore them all, except under the harshest of circumstances. Every idea seems better than the one we decided to use. This is just human nature.