Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A How to write from the middle?

I had the same problem as well. I've got key scenes scattered here and there (though mine tend to be near the end) that inspire me, and no idea how to get there. Sad to say, the only solution I'v...

posted 11y ago by Lexi‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:44:57Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/7342
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Lexi‭ · 2019-12-08T02:44:57Z (almost 5 years ago)
I had the same problem as well. I've got key scenes scattered here and there (though mine tend to be near the end) that inspire me, and no idea how to get there.

Sad to say, the only solution I've found is to write, throw it all away, and rewrite. Rinse and repeat many, many times. Even if it starts off as embarrassingly awkward, it's a base to work from.

Look at the scenes you've written. Can you change the setting so the action happens in a more interesting place? Can you introduce a new character, or reveal more about an existing one? What other conflicts can you add, or perhaps subplots? Can you develop an existing subplot? Or can you combine some of the existing scenes to make a single, more action-packed one?

You won't get this in the first go. Heck, you probably won't even get it in the second or third. But the key is to **keep finessing, and keep rewriting**. It sucks to throw out work that you've spent a lot of time on, but sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) it's the only way to improve. By your eighth or ninth iteration, you'll already have a good sense of what works and what doesn't, and those annoying in-between bits will read much better than before.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2013-02-22T04:20:29Z (over 11 years ago)
Original score: 9