Articles written by Kimberlee Ferrell

The school year was always the beginning of my year when I was in school, but as a writing parent I realize it is even more important to have everything in order and ready to go for the start of the school year.

My eldest daughter started kindergarten this year. Just to get her signed up, we had doctor’s appointments, paperwork to organize, an ice-cream social to meet the teacher, and the excitement of arriving on the first day and getting to know all her new friends. I’ve had to learn how to wake up earlier, adhere to stricter deadlines of when to get her to school and pick her up, and get used to a house that is one half quieter. All the while, my writing deadlines haven’t diminished!

Even writers who don’t have little ones in the house can benefit from starting their new year in September. The holiday season is fast approaching, and it’s best to have an established writing plan now before it begins. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up over the past month to help writers with the back-to-school blues.

School Is In Session!

1. Get organized! Now is the time to make sure all your paperwork is in order. Evaluate your writing schedule, and see if it is still working effectively for you. Update your submissions and queries lists, and if you have a manuscript ready to be sent out, just hit send! Clean out your computer and filing cabinets, and backup your electronic files – or schedule them to be backed up on a regular basis. Take inventory of your supplies, and order more if you’re running low on paper, ink, or postage.
2. Schedule a checkup. Writers don’t have the luxury of sick days, so make sure that you’ve had all your necessary doctor and dentist visits within the past year. Go ahead and schedule your next one too, so you won’t be tempted to put it off. Also schedule an hour or so where you can give your writer-life a checkup too. Have you met the goals you set for yourself last year? Or are you still wandering aimlessly without goals? Now is the time to evaluate your progress and pinpoint where you are heading.
3. Make time to socialize. Writing does not happen in a vacuum, or within the confines of your comfy office chair. Online writing pals are a great resource, for laughs about the writing life and leads to new outlets for your stories. Find real life friends who help you give your mind a break and inspire your writing to fraternize with too.
4. Evaluate your own education. One of the joys of being a writer is that you don’t need an Ivy League education to succeed, just a pencil and paper. However, you may need to take a quick online course to brush up on the finer points of style, or purchase an e-book on the writing life. It is never too late to further your education, whether it is through a brick and mortar university or by watching writing videos. Decide what level you’d like your writing to be at, and plan accordingly.
5. Embrace the unexpected. Life’s curve balls are part of the plot twists and conflicts that enhance the quality of your fiction writing. When you have to navigate new experiences, do your best, learn from them, and then review them to see what might make a good plot point for your next story.

What is your back to school ritual? Do you consider it a new start to the year, or do you wait for New Year’s Day?

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In our daily lives, we have to make room for the minutiae of life. We eat, drink, take showers, and run errands. Our lives would fall apart without taking care of the basic necessities of living.

Our characters don’t often have the luxury of taking care of life’s minutiae when they are busy pursuing their goals. In the television series “24″, the hero Jack Bower must save the day, without taking any time for himself. He sets aside his personal needs when he pursues the enemy and protects the President. He doesn’t even have time to sleep!

Your characters may be in the middle of a similarly high-paced action story, or they may have a little more leeway. It is up to you to decide how much realism needs to be incorporated into your novel. Too much, and your readers could become bored. Too little, and your characters appear superhuman, unaffected by the basic requirements of living a healthy life.

Adding More Details to Your Story

When your writing is flowing freely, it is too easy to forget that your characters need a break. They may jump from one scene to another, overcoming foes and discovering new obstacles at every turn. While this makes for an exciting story, your characters can’t go on forever without some down time.

Sleep is one of the most important things that characters seem to forget to do. Allow them to set up camp for the night, or they may collapse from exhaustion in the middle of an important scene. Chapter breaks are great places to let your characters sleep on the past events, and prepare them to face a new day in pursuit of their goals.

Eating and drinking are also necessary if you want your characters to keep forging ahead. They may only have time to grab an apple and a swig of water, but that small detail will remind readers that your characters are realistic and susceptible to human concerns. Larger meals can be included to provide a respite from a speedy plot line, and to give your characters time to ruminate over their game plan.

Removing Minutiae From Your Story

Your story can become bogged down by too much detail. If every chapter ends with your heroine curling up in her cozy bed, her plight can sound trivial and mundane. Readers like stories that provide an escape from their everyday lives. Too many mundane activities can add up to a boring story.

If your characters have to get from point A to point B, they can do so either very quickly or very slowly in terms of your story. Noting that they arrived at their destination after three days of uneventful travel is perfectly fine. You don’t have to show every stop, every meal, and every conversation that doesn’t add to your story. Only include minutiae if it enhances your characterization or your plot line. When in doubt, throw it out.

It is very easy to add a mundane scene, just to act as filler while you’re thinking of what happens next in the story. If you need to keep the writing flowing, go ahead and write that scene at a roadside diner. It may provide important details to lead your characters in the right direction. If it doesn’t, you can always remove it later, and your story will keep up the pace.

Do you tend to write lean stories, without many human details? Or do you enjoy writing long descriptive passages about every meal? How do you strike a balance of real world concerns and exciting plot points?

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“There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the cold, hard truth.” ~ Don Henley

Choosing your point of view (POV) is one of the most critical aspects of your novel writing. Yet it is also one of the most automatic. Most writers leap into a story, and start writing from their main character’s perspective, in either the first or third person. This early decision can cause issues later on, if the point of view isn’t the ideal one for your story.

POV is also one of the main tools that establishes the narrative mode of your story. It dictates how involved your readers become, by limiting how much information your characters are able to reveal. It brings a unique perspective to the story, which can drastically change if you rewrite a passage with a different point of view. Take a look at some of the most commonly used points of view in literature, and see if your writing could benefit from a perspective face lift.

First Person POV

Your main character speaks directly to your audience, using “I, me, mine”. When using the first person, you are restricted to revealing only one character’s inner thoughts. Your readers see the world through your protagonist’s eyes only, learning new facts only when they are discovered by your hero. Descriptions of your setting, other characters, and obstacles are all filtered through the POV character’s perspective.

This technique is particularly effective when you are writing a character driven story. Your theme will often depend on the character’s personal growth, inner transformation, and the struggles she faces. It is less effective when you need to be able to switch your perspective from character to character, as readers may struggle when presented with another first person point of view within a story. You may try switching characters at chapter breaks, but readers will greatly identify with the character whose head they’ve been in from the beginning, and may resist the unusual break in perspective.

Third Person Limited POV

Your narrator or narrative voice speaks about your characters, using “he, she, them” while focusing primarily on one or two characters. You still retain some of your authority as a writer, and can describe the rest of the story’s world without the need to take your protagonist’s perspective into consideration. Usually, the story will focus on only one character within a chapter, and perspective switches occur at chapter breaks.

Romances are a great example of when two characters share the protagonist role, and when third person limited is split between two characters. However, be on the lookout for when your point of view slides into another person’s perspective without you realizing it. This can cause confusion for your readers, who may not understand why your story is being seen through another person’s eyes all of a sudden. Also, make sure that you don’t unintentionally reveal facts and thoughts that your protagonist cannot know, or else your story’s continuity can be undermined.

Third Person Omniscient POV

Your narrator speaks in a similar way to third person limited, except that they can reveal anything and everything about your characters. The sky’s the limit here, as you can begin with a grand overview of your book’s world, and then zoom in to the perspective of a bumblebee. This perspective is excellent for plot driven stories, where you need to jump from scene to scene taking place in various areas of the world.

However, third person omniscient is also one of the most difficult perspectives to do well. If you jar your readers too much by jumping around, they may lose interest and set your story down. While you can do anything you want, you probably shouldn’t. Guide your readers through your story with grace and skill, and they will be blown away by the expansiveness and complexity of your tale.

Choose a passage from your latest story, and determine what POV you have used. Try rewriting it another point of view, and see how your story changes! What is your favorite point of view?

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When driving along the storytelling highway, you are bound to run across a few plot potholes that could send you and your story out of control. Even if you have your trusty map – the plot outline – at your side, it will not always prevent you from running into weather-beaten ruts, perilous potholes, or unexpected road blocks. This is a frustrating scenario for any writer to find herself in, as it appears that the best laid plans are dissolving right before her eyes.

When driving a vehicle, you have a few options for overcoming obstacles to your destination. You can keep moving forward, no matter how treacherous, damaging, or slow-going the terrain will be. You can follow established detour routes, which may make for a smoother ride but can slow your trip considerably. You can kick in the four wheel drive and take it off-road, which can be exhilarating, but can also be more dangerous than the original obstacle.

You can also make a u-turn and head back home, but you wouldn’t want to do that, right? Here are some of the most common plot potholes you may encounter in fiction writing, and solutions to make the storytelling highway a much smoother ride.

Plot Problem 1: Characters Veering Off the Path

Anyone who has been the navigator on a cross-country trip knows the perils of a driver who wants to go off the beaten path. “Hey, there’s a billboard for the World’s Largest Ball of Twine! Let’s go check it out,” your hero says, and the next thing you know your vehicle is turning off on the next exit, into unfamiliar territory. When the characters in your story get distracted by something equally as shiny – and unrelated to the story at hand – it is hard to resist dramatically reaching over and taking the steering wheel out of their hands.

The real world solution is very similar to the literary solution – let the hero get it out of his system. Go and see the amazing roadside attraction, by writing out the unruly scene in your story. Then you will be able to see whether or not the detour was justified. You might be surprised to find that the plot needed a side trip after all, to reinforce the theme of the story, create a new subplot, or to give the protagonist time to think of a solution. Even if the scene needs to be cut out later on, your hero may learn his lesson, and listen to you the next time you tell him to follow your outline.

Plot Pothole 2: Plot Screeching to a Halt

You are writing right along, and then find yourself at a dead end. You have no idea where to go next. Your outline doesn’t give you any clues on how to navigate your way out. Even asking your characters for ideas gets you nowhere. Your plot is stuck in the mud, and you’re tempted to call a tow truck to get you out of the muck.

This plot pothole usually appears when your outline isn’t as strong as you thought it was. You know your characters need to get from point A to point B, but you weren’t completely sure how they were going to do it. Now that you’re on your way, the problem appears much larger and more difficult to navigate. Your best bet is to take a break, and approach your plot problem with fresh eyes. Talk it over with some writing friends, and possibly add a new element or two to the story that can give you more options. Make sure your characters are adequately motivated and equipped to handle the problem, and with a little ingenuity, they can make it out in no time.

Plot Pothole 3: Spiraling Out of Control

When the writing is flowing freely, it is easy to fly by crucial elements of your story. The pacing of your novel may go entirely too fast, as you send your characters zooming towards goal after goal. They don’t get a chance to breathe or process anything that has happened to them. When you finally hit a pothole, your story flies out of your hands. You haven’t taken the time to get to know your characters, and they are overwhelmed and exhausted.

Even in the most exciting, high paced thriller, you need to give your characters slower scenes, where they can pause and decide what to do next. Allow them to pull over, stretch their legs, and examine how far they have gotten in pursuit of their goals. After a high-speed chase, be sure to pause, so your story has natural highs and lows while getting you ever closer to your conclusion. You wouldn’t drive for 24 hours without a break, and your characters need down time as well.

What plot potholes have you encountered when writing? Do you have techniques for avoiding or powering through the most troublesome stumbling blocks? Your solution may be just what another writer needs to keep writing through their novel.

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I have no name: I am but two days old. What shall I call thee? ~ William Blake

When you first meet a new fictional character, she will often reveal herself slowly. Maybe first, a mental image of her general appearance, or a quick glimpse at her situation and goals. You feel excited as you begin to plan your story or outline, and rush to your keyboard or notebook.

Before that first sentence is written, you come upon an unsettling discovery. You don’t know your character’s name! Often, new characters are not forthcoming with their names, and you have to rack your brain to come up with one, instantly short-circuiting the writing process.

A name is a crucial yet overlooked part of the author’s decision making process. People form associations with different names, and a character named “Sir William T. Rutherford of Devonshire” will create a different impression from one named “Willie McGee”. Here are some considerations when naming a fictional character.

Fictional Character Naming Techniques

1. Consider your story’s setting. Odd place to start, right? A modern day setting lends itself to names we are all familiar with, while a historical setting often has more elaborate names, including the character’s title and homeland. In a futuristic story, a fictional characters name can be as familiar or fantastical as you desire!
2. Research the setting. If your story is in a small town, it’s quite possible that you could unintentionally come up with the name of a real human being. A quick trip to the yellow pages can save you a lot of grief later on in the writing process. Historical stories also face the problem of copying the name of a real world figure, although some writers do choose to incorporate public figures into their novels.
3. Compare other character names. If you’ve already named a few of your characters, review how their names work together. Their name can give subtle clues about your characters’ ethnicity, social status, and how they see themselves (in the case of nicknames). Look out for alliteration! Readers can become confused when multiple characters’ names start with the same letter.
4. Browse baby naming books and websites. Hundreds of thousands of names can be found in baby naming literature, saving both parents and writers a lot of time and trouble. They often including name meanings and origins, which can help your character portray the right characteristics.
5. Examine your friends’ and family members’ names – for names not to choose! No one wants to try to explain to a loved one that they did not write a story about them. Play it safe, and put those names on your permanent “Do Not Name” list.
6. Create your own name. If nothing is calling out to you, you can always piece together your own name. Science fiction and fantasy novels often include otherworldly names, which look like a random mishmash of syllables. As long as your name follows conventional linguistic patterns, readers should be able to pronounce the name to themselves while reading. (A tip: No more than three consonants go in a row without a vowel in most English words.)

How do you decide on your characters’ names? Do they come fully equipped with names, or do you have to coax them out? Have you ever created your own name? Share your techniques here!

Recommended: Five more tips for writers on naming fictional characters at BabyNames.com

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Do you find yourself editing as you write? Do you prefer to keep the writing and editing processes separate? All writers have an opinion about how and when to edit your work-in-progress. Some storytellers let their writing flow uninterrupted, leaving a trail of spelling errors and typos in their wake. Other writers prefer careful editing of their piece after each writing session (or page, or paragraph, or sentence), examining each scene or chapter carefully and fine tuning it into a work of written art.

I use a mix of both techniques. I can’t stand looking at the red squiggly lines appearing below my errors, so I quickly backspace and fix my glaring errors while writing a scene. I even enter my characters’ names into my dictionary, so I don’t have a messy document. However, larger changes, such as carving up a scene, I save until much later on. That much reworking would knock my writer’s hat off my head, leaving only my editor’s hat.

Pros of Consistently Editing

1. You’ll finish with a more polished manuscript, which will require less editing after it is completed.
2. You can keep track of how your plot, subplot, and story arc are progressing, and rely less on your memory.
3. If you find a major plot hole that requires a complete restructuring of your story, you can fix it immediately and not find yourself at a dead end later.
4. Your characters will be less likely to wander off on tangents that are unrelated to the story at hand.
5. The story will have much more continuity, and you won’t have to search to change every instance of an incorrect fact.
6. Grammatical errors are much easier to spot when reading smaller chunks of a story.

Cons of Constantly Editing

1. The flow of the story will be harder to maintain when you are stopping and starting repeatedly.
2. The critical side of you required to edit properly can bring your mood down, draining your motivation.
3. You may pick apart a scene to pieces, so that it falls apart and is no longer usable in your story.
4. You may forget your place in the story, and stop writing much sooner than you intended.
5. Your daily word count may be lower, and your progress will be harder to track.
6. If you find a problem that requires major work, you may not know how to fix it, which will halt you in your tracks.

So what’s the verdict? Each writer has their own writing and editing style. What works for me won’t necessarily work for you. As long as it is actually working, then keep it up! If not, go over the pros and cons, and decide for yourself.

Weigh in on the editing debate! Which method do you find yourself doing most often? Do you have more pros or cons to add to the list? Share your editing experiences here.

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Most writers have fiction stories from years ago that have since been abandoned to the dark recesses of a desk drawer archive. Some stories never made it past the opening lines, others were just a few chapters away from their dramatic conclusion. While some stories are best left hidden away, others can be revived and fashioned into more exciting plots.

If your current ideas aren’t inspiring you, go digging through your old files to find treasures you may have forgotten that you have! After years have passed, you can read over your partial first drafts with a fresh eye, as if they were written by someone else. Once you find a story that still has potential, read it over and look for areas that can be crafted into a new short story or novel.

Mine the Introduction

Most writers have the peak of their enthusiasm within the first chapter or scene of their story. Introductions bring the first characters and plot points into main focus. It is possible that your characters are incompatible for the story you put them in. A confident, powerful businesswoman may not belong in a sleepy Midwestern town when she’d shine in a bustling city. (Then again, she just might, providing a marked contrast. Your story may vary.) When you can extract characters from a weak plot, you can transfer them to a more exciting storyline.

On the other hand, your plot may shine, but your characters just aren’t interested in seeing the story through. They may be flat and lifeless, and not yield any additional information when you try character building techniques. It may be time to send those characters on their way, and give the story to more enthusiastic protagonists who will care about what’s happening in the world around them.

Dig into the Heart of the Story

For lengthier abandoned manuscripts, it can be harder to pinpoint exactly what went wrong. Characters seem to get minds of their own, going off in unexpected directions and wandering away from the story. Plots can weaken and meander, to the point where even you don’t know what is going to happen next.

While many writers prefer the excitement of an unplanned route, others need a solid plot outline to bring their story and characters back on track. Write out an outline of the plot so far, and see where the story is actually heading. If it is workable, then you can revive that story and get back to writing. If not, see what needs to be cut, rearranged, or expanded into new avenues. If you’re at a loss, use a mind map to free associate possibilities for your plot.

Carve Into Your Words

An abandoned story will need a lot of work, and you will need to put on your editor’s hat for awhile before getting back to the writing. Ruthlessly cut into your story, removing anything that is not serving the plot. You can literally do this with a pair of scissors and a lot of tape, or you can cut and paste within your word processing program. If you don’t want to toss out perfectly good writing that just doesn’t fit, put those unneeded phrases into an idea file that you can go over later.

Have you revived an aging story? What ideas do you use when called to rework an unfinished or finished manuscript?

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Fleshing out characters (giving 3d characters four dimensions) is one of my favorite aspects of writing a story, perhaps more than weaving the plot. The human mind is complex, and in a story, every character is an outstanding individual, with their own story, dreams, hopes and fears. The possibilities are limitless, and I could spend all day uncovering the characters’ motivations, ideals, and inner workings.

Once the plot gets going, even complex 3d characters get busy with what’s going on around them, and are in danger of losing their personality quirks. When I’m writing through an exciting scene, I often forget that the characters wouldn’t act the way I would act. I have to go back and evaluate the scene, and whether they are acting true to character.

When that happens, I look over four dimensions of a character’s personality, to see if they are acting consistently throughout the story. These four dimensions can be determined at the beginning of a story, or infused at any point in time thereafter to bring out the best in your heroes.

Thoughts: The Hero’s Conscious Awareness

Your characters each have their own perspective on the world. Their upbringing, education level, and current situation shape their thoughts and consequently their actions. A well-to-do, college-educated attorney will think about the world far differently than an abused high school dropout. They will be concerned about different things, have a particular sense of right and wrong, and analyze problems in unique ways. They will also hold themselves and their companions to separate standards, praising and criticizing under various circumstances.

The most common way we look at an individual’s thoughts today is through left brain, right brain analysis. In general, characters who are left brained think logically and rationally, working through a situation step-by-step to its conclusion. Right brained folks look at life on a grander scale, working holistically and creatively to solve problems. You can really flesh out a character’s thought patterns by figuring out if she’s left or right brained, and how she approaches critical thinking.

Feelings: What His Heart Wants

In direct opposition at times to the hero’s thought processes are his emotional reactions to the world. Before his brain gets a chance to analyze, his heart will express his initial reaction to external stimuli. Your protagonist will obviously have feelings about all the other characters he meets, whether they are good, bad, or indifferent feelings. This will color his actions in how much he interacts with others, and in what ways.

However, people have feelings about everything in their lives, not just other humans. She may feel that she is on the wrong course of action, even when she cannot think of a reason why this is so. Known as gut reactions, following your intuition, or even psychic awareness, these feelings crop up consistently throughout our lives. Your character may feel like wearing a red shirt today, even though her blue shirt is clean too. She may despise her best friend’s brother, even though she just met him and knows nothing about him. These are all human feelings that can take your story and characters down exciting new paths.

Actions: How He Presents Himself to the World

Your protagonist shapes his world and his story via his actions, how he interacts with other people and his environment. Actions reveal a lot about a person’s character, illuminating his thoughts and feelings with a tip of his hat. If your character doesn’t act, he doesn’t progress through the story, and will have to be helped along by his companions.

Actions are the home of “show, don’t tell”, where your heroine can really stand out from the crowd. If she pulls over to help an injured animal along the side of the road, she will come across as compassionate and nurturing, even if no one else in the story recognizes that fact. If she stands firmly against every obstacle in her path, readers will come to the conclusion that she is headstrong, determined, and perhaps a little ruthless. Actions really do speak louder than words, amongst your characters and to your readers as well.

Relations: How He Interacts with Others

Your hero does not live in a vacuum. He has to deal with other people, and all of the things that we do in our daily lives. Work, home, school, society, religion, health, goals, and values shape your character continuously. He has to relate to and react to all of these environmental influences on a daily basis, with certain aspects taking precedence depending on the day’s events.

How your character relates to her environment can provide new insights you may not have considered. If your protagonist is a diligent worker, yet lives in a messy home, she obviously has different values about what is acceptable in different settings. At the beginning of the story, she may be a self-proclaimed atheist, yet is presented with many challenges to her faith throughout the story arc. Whether she lets herself relate to those challenges, or remains unchanged, will give readers a new perspective on her personality.

These four dimensions of a character’s personality will give you unlimited characterization ideas and plot possibilities. Your readers will easily relate when the characters think, feel, act, and relate to the world in ways that we all do each day. When your heroine seems dull, go over these four dimensions and see if she has the opportunity to show of her amazing self!

How do you ensure that your characters are fleshed out and believable? To what standard do you hold them accountable? What tricks do you use to bring out the best in your heroes?

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“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” ~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Your story’s world, known as milieu,is the environment that your characters play out their story within. This backdrop provides a wealth of description, opportunities, and influences for your story, and cannot be ignored. If your characters could be living anywhere at any time, your environment could use some fleshing out.

Many authors don’t have too much trouble defining their story’s world, because it is a present day story with modern conveniences in a popular town, such as New York City, Paris, or London.  While this makes writing the story easier, it can also “date” a story, when modern day people no longer use telegraphs or 8 track tapes. If your story is modern, don’t neglect to illuminate it with rich descriptions of its environment, culture, and customs.

However, other types of stories have a different issue. Their worlds are either partially or wholly unfamiliar to the reader. Historical and romance novels have the task of staying true to facts while adding fictional elements to expand the possibilities of a bygone era. Science fiction and fantasy novels have environments entirely created by the author, which can fall prey to loopholes if the author loses track of his world-building.

Creative World Exploration

1. Research the world’s past. Your world, whether its real or fictional, has a rich history waiting to be unfurled. Writers using a real world location can research online or at their local library. When writing about a fictional realm, it is up to you to create the past events, politics, and religions of your world. Spend some time freewrite the possibilities, and create a timeline of the past that you can refer back to as you write.
2. Plan the future. Beyond normal plotting, unfamiliar worlds require special attention to the future. While your protagonists are creating their own future, the world is evolving around them. Historical writers need to plan around real world events. In Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, Melanie’s pregnancy purportedly lasted 22 months,* when compared to Civil War battles! Science fiction and fantasy writers need only make sure their timelines remain consistent throughout the book.
3. Explain when necessary. Besides the past and future, many stories have unusual present day activities. The classic science fiction example is the oscillating door. When such futuristic objects were first introduced into stories, they had to be explained at length so the reader could envision a door that would open in a circular fashion all by itself. Today, readers are exposed to a wide variety of  technology, both fictional and non-fictional. Explanations would hardly be necessary for the modern reader. Do a bit of research into your book’s market, and see what literary conventions are taken for granted, and what unexpected bits deserve your witty exposition.

Don’t let your characters perform their life stories on an empty stage. Give them a rich, inviting world to explore, and your readers will be happy to tag along for the adventure.

How do you bring your story’s world to life? Do you do a lot of research before writing your stories, or do you edit in facts later on? Share your world building techniques here.

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Writing a compelling story involves putting your characters into difficult situations, known as conflict, and showing how they work their way out of them. While we have all faced our share of conflict in our own lives, our heroes can get into more trouble than we ever thought possible! Sometimes, they want to wander far afield from the problems we thought they would encounter, and trip over new sources of conflict we never considered before.

If you find yourself writing about a trouble making protagonist who thrives on conflict, you may wonder how exactly she’s going to get out of it. As your plot progresses, the encounters will only get more intense, and more critical to the character’s primary goals. The heroine has to find her way out, but if she and the writer have painted themselves into a corner with conflict, the story will fizzle out.

The Primer Coat: Review the Plot

The first layer of paint to explore is the plot up to the point of this apparently insurmountable conflict. You’re not looking for a way out of this conflict, even though that is very tempting at this point. The more intense the problem is, the more excited your readers will be, so stick with it! What you are looking for, are hidden tools and clues to paint your way through the conflict, with your protagonist victorious.

For example, your hero cannot think of a way to disable the machine that is threatening to destroy his hometown. However, when you look back at the scene where the antagonist built it, you realize that the key component is susceptible to water damage. If there are cooling pipes filled with water attached to the machine, your hero could use that water to stop the machine and save the day.

The Color Coat: Character Reactions

If your hero is drawing a blank when faced with the biggest conflict of his life, remove him from the story for just a few minutes. Present the problem to him, and freewrite his response. While under pressure, he may buckle, but with some space to breathe and think, he may be able to come to his own solution. Then you can figure out how to make him realize that solution within the story, by having either an internal or external trigger prompt him into action.

Your hero may not have the answer though, which means it is time to look at other characters. Pretend that they are the main character instead. What would the antagonist do if he were in the same predicament? Would the hero’s girlfriend have the same reaction? Write through a couple of imaginary situations, and see if they present alternate scenarios to victory.

The Top Coat: Give Friendly Advice

When you’re absolutely sure you have firmly painted your conflict into the corner, don’t give up hope! Instead, sit with your character over a cup of coffee like you would your best friend. Listen to her problems, and then offer up the best advice you would give.

Your heroine may have to cut ties with her ex-boyfriend once and for all, but doesn’t know how to approach him. Have a mental or written conversation back and forth with her, where she explains everything that is going on, as well as her hopes and fears about the encounter. You can then let her know what you would do if you were in that situation yourself. Whether she listens or not is another matter, but she will be more prepared to face her final conflict, and you will be prepared to wrap up that critical scene in your story.

How have you painted your story conflict into a corner? Did you make your way out, or have to backtrack and start over? What are your techniques for dealing with insurmountable plot twists?

Photo Credit: Wendy Harman (wharman)