I'm in a spot of bother with a story, I had it all laid out in my head. As soon as I've committed it to writing, it's a mess. It's plodding, no pace and just too wordy. Horrors of horrors, even the sexy stuff is a little dull.
I'm minded to do a story arc, just bullet-points but something to keep the story going in the direction I want to.
Could anyone provide any insights on how they keep stories going without getting bogged down?
Many thanks in advance.........
I do a short summary of the story before I ever start - all bullet-points as you've said. For me, it's important to have a sketch so that I'm mindful of where I'm going, what characters are involved and roughly how many words I want to dedicate to each scene so that it's paced properly.
I highly recommend mapping it out ahead of time - particularly if it's a story that involves more than one scene. This also allows you to layer a story with texture and sub-plots or themes and show the natural progression of the characters if the action in the story causes them to change over time or discover new things about themselves etc.
Not to mention that when you have the skeleton of the story set up, all you have to do from there is flesh it out. It's easier to keep writing and not break momentum or end up with writer's block because you're not sure what needs to happen next.
Follow DancingDoll's and Milik's advice. Me, I've only posted one story, which I knocked out in a whopping 45 minutes. Not the best example.
Want to spend some time wallowing in a Recommended Read? Pick one! Or two! Or seven!
If your text is ploddy - speed it up. Cut to the chase, play around with timelines, switch scenes, keep the reader on their toes. An added bonus is that speeding it up gives you the option of slowing it down when you really need to. If you think your text is too verbose you could start by trimming off the adjectives, I often find they're the culprits for stodgy writing. A tip I use for this is to read through replacing any adjective with the word "nice" - you'll soon see if you're using too many of them.
I pace out stories before I write so I know where I want to be in a story at, say, halfway or three quarters in. You don't have to stick rigidly to these milestones and when you come to the second or third draft you won't need them any more.
Another reason why I pace out stories is that I rarely write a story from the first scene all the way through to the final scene. Sometimes I can start with the end and work my way back other times I'll chop and change all over the place - this might work for you or it might not.
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Why not read some stories instead
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