Robert Ellis: HITTING THE WALL! (Part 1 of 2)

I’m working on Detective Matt Jones’ next murder case, the third thriller in the series. I wish I could say that the reason I’ve been delayed was because of some technical issue like the one I’ll be addressing today. But it wasn’t. Purely a personal matter that I’d been putting off, and finally had to deal with. It took time, it had nothing to do with health, and it’s over!

Now, because I’m working every day on my next novel, No. 8 no less, story problems were bound to come up!

With every new story, a writer, especially this one, gets to a point where he or she draws a blank and hits the wall. I think the official name is “writer’s block,” but from my experience, it isn’t a block at all…

In most cases the creative process pulls to a stop because the writer is unsure of where they’re going. For those of us who outline, the map isn’t detailed enough. The way forward isn’t clear. Our understanding of what characters are trying to accomplish in the story isn’t well defined. Working through the problem can be as simple as spending a little time reviewing our outlines and notes.

***Very important. If you are having this problem in the second half of your story, you need to spend much more time reviewing the first half of your work in all its forms. By the time a writer reaches the middle of a story, hitting the wall shouldn’t really happen and is probably the result of a very serious story problem. The second half of a story should be humming along on its own. Once I reach the middle of a story, I often feel like I’m just there to take notes. My characters have been introduced and established and are fully in charge by then.

But more about that in Part 2.

https://www.robertellis.net/

ROBERT ELLIS WRITERS BLOG

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*