Are you a pantser or a plotter?  If you’ve ever joined an online writers’ group, you’ve probably thought about that question.  Pantsers fly by the seat of their pants.  They don’t outline.  They just write and see where they end up.  Plotters take time to plan the story. They make outlines and charts and know where the story’s going before they type “Chapter One.”  Those are the edges of the spectrum.  Some of us fall in the middle.  What do you do when you need to write to find the story, but you’re prone to hitting dead-ends?  Here’s what works for me.

            1.  Start by writing.  Let the ideas flow.  No editing allowed.  Tell yourself that this is a draft and it’s not perfect and that’s okay.  The goal here isn’t to tell a perfect story.   It’s to discover the story.  The trick is to put your characters in motion.  Making coffee doesn’t count.  Neither does chatting in the living room or driving in a car unless someone’s being chased down a mountain road by a villain.  To get things rolling, drop your characters into a crisis and see what they do. 

            2.  At some point, you’ll hit a road block.  The signs can be subtle.  Sometimes I feel frustrated. Other times I’m bored with the story.  If the writer is yawning, so is the reader.  Whenever I’m stuck, I ask myself one question:  How can I make the situation worse?   

            Are your hero and heroine lost in the desert with one canteen of water?  Have someone spill it.  Who gets the last swallow? 

            Is your heroine out of a job?  Repossess her car and make her rent past due.  Better yet, throw her possessions on to the street. 

             The goal here is to add tension with every event in the story.