How do discovery writers hibernate?

I am a discovery writer. I agree with Liquid, I don't leave it alone. If I get stuck, I edit my story so far. I will start reading, from the beginning, and if I see anything worth fixing, I do.

If I finish and don't have an idea, I'll start over. If I go weeks without thinking of the solution, I'll still do that.

I feel like my only choices are to drop the story completely, give up on it, or read until I know how to fix it. What to cut, What to add, How to change the past to fix the dead spot.

I've read 200 pages four times through before figuring out how to fix it and finish the story. Sometimes it is a realization about a character (who they should be, what they could've done). Sometimes it is a realization about where I screwed the plot.

Stephen King, writing The Stand (823 pages) had a similar problem for weeks on end, and eventually scrapped a few hundred pages to start over at the particular point where he finally realized he'd taken a wrong turn.

You've got a story. If you are stuck, you got yourself there, with an earlier mistake. Keep reading until you find it, and then fix it. Question every plot development, twist or turning point decision you made. Question whether you've made your characters too soft, or hard, or conveniently too smart or too clueless.

You have the ending in mind. Try a reverse-writing: What is the final scene before that ending? The final discovery, the final piece of the puzzle that leads to that. If it is a battle, what happens right before the battle? Who is standing there? Who makes the final decision to risk their lives?

Then back up another scene. How did they get to THAT point? Eventually, you will find the seam between what you have already written, and what needs to come next. Then you can revise what you have already written to make that flow seamless.

There is something you can fix to make the story flow naturally into the ending. If you are going to be a discovery writer (and I am incapable of writing any other way) you have to get used to the fact that you can take a wrong turn, and are probably going to have to scrap a chapter or two now and then. Or more, like Stephen King, who scrapped about 25% of a book in progress, but finished it. I believe The Stand is his all-time bestseller.

posted over 4 years ago

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Amadeus‭

3156 reputation 2 1399 613 37

You have finished most of your novella, but need two more chapters

If you are struggling when you are about to end the book, you should give yourself a pat on the back, and also give yourself more time to figure it out. Personally taking breaks and doing activities do help me when I am determined to continue my writing process, there is no rush.

Read, watch programs on Netflix, or write and go for it. Sometimes it helps you if you just write, this will motivate you.

Sometimes the ideas find you, rather the other way round. Good luck.

posted over 4 years ago

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Edmund Frost‭

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In my experience hibernation doesn't help, unless you are so into a story that you're suffering from burnout. Nine times out of ten, if I leave a story unfinished, it will remain that way.

In your case, hibernating makes even less sense since you already know what you want to write in the final chapters. So, what keeps you from writing those chapters?

"Inspiration" is partly a truth, partly a myth. We all experience the need to write, the feeling of being lost in the flow of words coming out from our fingertips effortlessy. It's a pretty nice feeling indeed.

But you don't have to be inspired all the time to write. Nobody is. I'm willing to bet that the more you're willing to wait for the fleeting feeling of inspiration, the more you'll fall into periods of inactive pessimism. If you keep writing without relying on ispiration alone, you'll get more chances for inspiration to appear.

posted over 4 years ago

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Liquid‭

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