Punting Stories into Rivers
by Fiction Editor Sophia Baran
It’s fair to say that most writers face writer’s block at some point. It’s practically inevitable. But the kind of writer’s block I struggle with the most is the kind that hits when I’m already a couple pages into a story.
The idea’s there. I’ve thought about the plot and the characters, and I have a rough picture of what should happen in the story. It should, theoretically, be smooth sailing. But then I sit down to write, make some progress, and realize that something just isn’t clicking. I’ve hit a block.
The plot is not moving forward, the characters are frozen, and even getting a couple words down on the page feels like it would be harder than ripping my own teeth out with a pair of pliers. Metaphorically speaking.
So, what do I do when I’m just staring blankly at the blinking cursor in my open document?
Punt the story into a river. Watch the idea bob around in the current and see where it flows. Water likes to take the path of least resistance, and when I’m stuck with a bad case of writer's block, finding that path of least resistance helps.
If I can’t get the beginning to work, I start writing out that one scene from the middle of the story that I can picture so clearly in my head. Sometimes that middle scene ends up being my beginning scene. From there the words start to flow, and the momentum carries me through all the way to the end. Other times I can work my way backwards or forwards to complete the story from my out of sequence starting point.
I’ll float with the current wherever it takes me because often, that is easier than trying to fight my way upstream with a scene that just does not want to be written.
Occasionally, when I do write all these scenes out of order, I have to figure out how to connect them. They feel more like separate bodies of water existing alongside each other rather than one coherent piece. So, I get my hands dirty and dig out a strait. Sometimes it’s a matter of rearranging the scenes to be as seamless as possible, where each scene builds upon the last. Other times, it’s about doubling down on the perspective, the time, and the place, and clearly guiding the readers from the end of one development to the beginning of the next development. Or sometimes, it’s as easy as plopping in a line break.
Whatever makes sense for the flow of writing.
Rocks will occasionally crop up in the river. That is when writer's block gets tricky to work around. Upping the pressure works sometimes, especially if there are deadlines afoot created by myself or by others. Just get something down on the page, anything at all, then worry about it in later revision stages. I'll also do some extra brainstorming, and attack the problem from multiple angles. I’ll write things I don’t expect to include in the final draft at all, like snippets from different perspectives, writing a scene from an alternate point in time, or writing out an outline of events as if I’m gossiping about the plot with someone.
But sometimes nothing works. The story idea is firmly beached on those rocks, and the current is not strong enough to dislodge it. The writing is well and truly blocked. In this case, sometimes the best thing I can do is walk away from it. Maybe not forever, but if there is a problem somewhere in the writing that I just cannot figure out how to fix it, I have to take a step back. Let the story sit for a while so I can come back and look at it with fresh eyes.
And just maybe, somewhere down the line, another idea will go bobbing down the river. At just the right angle, it’ll bump into the beached story and knock both off the rock. Then off I go, writing away past writer's block, and flowing with the river.
Sophia Baran is the Fiction Editor of Barnstorm Journal. She received her B.A. in History from the University of Toronto and is currently an MFA Fiction Writing student at the University of New Hampshire.