My plot is stuck.... (possible spoilers)

[lonewolfwanderer]

My MC was given a pendant, which is needed to access the thirteenth kingdom, which was believed to be a myth. It was given to him by someone important to the plot (you only find out who he is after the MC has reached this 13th kingdom).

At the moment I need the MC to first find out what this pendant is before it can lead him to the kingdom (which is the more logical route in my mind). This brings about the knowledge that the 13th kingdom isn't just a myth, and sends him on the journey to find it (Perhaps seeking the knowledge gets him started on his journey). But i can't for the life of me think how he finds all of this out.

I'm having trouble visualizing the route to this goal The first part I was able to visualize, but here my mind has drawn a blank and because of this, i haven't written anything since my last critique post. In a sense, my plot is stuck and i really want to continue writing.

Of course, there is a little more to the story, but i won't share that else it spoils the story.

Is this what they call writer's block? How do you overcome it? And, i know this is uncouth, but would you mind if i asked for possible ideas on how one would find such information as mentioned above?

 

[barrett1987]

Can't tell you where to take your story but i can tell you that you need to run a long, hot bath and soak there for an hour. You'll relax and your mind will drift and something will come to you.

Failing that, get up and go for a long walk. Pick a direction or target that you know well. City centre, obscure shop, whatever, then walk to it, while you walk your mind will relax and you can start to think. If you sit in your room staring at the screen the only thing you'll end up thinking about it how sore and numb your arse is getting.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I get an A4 notebook and start working it out. It sometimes takes a day or two, but it always gets me there.

 

[jastius]

if you can't see how he does it, perhaps it because its taken away from him.
maybe stolen... lost somehow? or perhaps confiscated? does he not know what it is and gives it away or pawns it?

when i can't see how the main character will accomplish something, sometimes its just because its the chapter end and its someone else's turn to steer the boat.

its not the end of your story or your ideas...
your story is simply anchored there for a bit ...
whilst some other character or characters do their thing...

work out the between that makes up what they do, and take up the story again when it gets back out to your character.

only write the bit of their part in as it pertains to your story and your character... the stuff pertaining to the main story.

 

[Laeraneth]

That sounds more like a plot gap than a case of writers block as such.
Ie, you know exactly where you need to get to, you know what's going to get you there, but aren't clear on HOW it's going to get you there. (I've had the exact same problem over the last few weeks, right at the end of my story ;P)

My problem was caused by having too much 'fluff' in the way, that I think was distracting from and delaying the main thrust of the story.

So, a question for you and your pendant: Do you need to have the access to the thirteenth kingdom be a place they have to go to? (presumably some tucked away thing that ordinary people don't run into like a mystical train platform or a cave entrance under a big tree in the back end of no-where or a door that only becomes apparent when a magical item is near, or (etc))
Could you short cut the process and simply have it that being in possession of, or touching the pendant, makes it clear to the owner/wearer of it? Perhaps they just automatically know where it is and are compelled to go there? Perhaps it just teleports them? Perhaps they see the place in a dream? Perhaps it has some sort of spirit guide that leads them there? (Will-o-the-wisp style or guiding spirit style or any other style that comes to mind) Perhaps some other route entirely.

Suffice to say, like me, you might be inserting a journey to get somewhere that isn't actually needed

(Of course, this entirely depends on other demands and twists and turns in your plot so... I don't know if this suggestion will help or not )

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

Thanks for the replies. Planning isn't really my style, it confuses me. I kinda write the story a similar way to how a painter paints. I visualize the end result and paint (in words) accordingly.

That sounds more like a plot gap than a case of writers block as such.
Ie, you know exactly where you need to get to, you know what's going to get you there, but aren't clear on HOW it's going to get you there. (I've had the exact same problem over the last few weeks, right at the end of my story ;P)

My problem was caused by having too much 'fluff' in the way, that I think was distracting from and delaying the main thrust of the story.

So, a question for you and your pendant: Do you need to have the access to the thirteenth kingdom be a place they have to go to? (presumably some tucked away thing that ordinary people don't run into like a mystical train platform or a cave entrance under a big tree in the back end of no-where or a door that only becomes apparent when a magical item is near, or (etc))
Could you short cut the process and simply have it that being in possession of, or touching the pendant, makes it clear to the owner/wearer of it? Perhaps they just automatically know where it is and are compelled to go there? Perhaps it just teleports them? Perhaps they see the place in a dream? Perhaps it has some sort of spirit guide that leads them there? (Will-o-the-wisp style or guiding spirit style or any other style that comes to mind) Perhaps some other route entirely.

Suffice to say, like me, you might be inserting a journey to get somewhere that isn't actually needed

(Of course, this entirely depends on other demands and twists and turns in your plot so... I don't know if this suggestion will help or not )

The thirteenth kingdom is important. When the MC goes there, he breaks the seal which was placed upon it and releases the "corruption" that resides within, thus lining up the plot for the following stages of the story. Also, by going there he gains the beginnings of the power needed to divert the problem that results from breaking the seals.

But i can't just have him get the pendant, and know straight away the location of the thirteenth kingdom (it will be a very short book, otherwise). However, your ideas about the dreams etc. does play along with a dream i had, about the book. Where the pendant "talks" to him. Perhaps the voice guides him when he needs it most. I'll see how that plays out.

And maybe jastius is right, and i need to shift the POV to allow me to line things up. I will incorporate both and see where the story leads me.

 

[Montero]

I sometimes "what if" this kind of thing. Try it even with silly examples. And try to come up with objections, or supporting comments for the examples. So

What if the good fairy told him?

Onward burbling - What good fairy? Has there been any fairies up to this point? Are there bad fairies? Is it a bad fairy in disguise pretending to be a good fairy and setting him up for a nasty fall?

I just sit there, sometimes with a word doc, sometimes with a spreadsheet - because working across columns helps - and keep on burbling until something good floats up.

The other variant is to look at it from each character's viewpoint and ask "what would so and so do next".
Then - what effect does so and so's action have on character 2 etc.

Most of it is chucked away, but good stuff comes from it.

 

[MarJacko]

I'm new here so you should probably take this with a pinch of salt. Maybe the person who gave your MC the pendant could have left behind some agents or clues to send the MC on a journey to prepare him for for when the time comes to open the seal. I don't know if this would fit into your plot or not but just thought I'd chuck it in to try and help.

 

[Ursa major]

In what circumstances does the mysterious benefactor give the pendant to the MC? (It isn't something that strangers naturally do, is it, giving away jewellery?)

Then perhaps it wasn't a gift, but a task: "Take the pendant to X and she will pay you for your trouble." After that X, might provide more information. Or perhaps the "benefactor" dropped the pendant seemingly by mistake and disappeared before the MC could return it. Using the inscription inside the pendant (or something similar), the MC decides to find its owner, during which search he meets Y, who provides more information. And during either of these activities (delivery/returning the pendant), others may be after the pendant and, one (perhaps fatally wounded) tells the MC something else about it.


That sort of thing.

 

[TitaniumTi]

A) Someone tells him. Who? Why? (For good or evil?) How does that person or being know?

B) He finds a record such as a diary, an inscription or a painting of the pendant? How does he find the record? What does the record tell him? How does he react?

C) He has a psychic/mental/emotional experience such as a vision, a dream or a memory. What triggers this event?

D) He has an actual experience linked to the 13th Kingdom. For example, he might encounter a door to the Kingdom but, because of his lack of knowledge, trigger a catastrophe that destroys the door.

You could use one of these or a combination. The simplicity or complexity of the plot choices should depend on your story arc, IMO.

I also wonder whether you, as the writer, could temporarily skip over these events. Perhaps as you write about his encounter with the 13th Kingdom, the events leading to its discovery will become clear in your mind.

 

[TitaniumTi]

I've re-read your pieces in the critiques sub-forum, and I wonder if you could trickle out much of the information before the MC is given the pendant. Then a final event could lead your MC (and the reader) to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

I've re-read your pieces in the critiques sub-forum, and I wonder if you could trickle out much of the information before the MC is given the pendant. Then a final event could lead your MC (and the reader) to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

A) Someone tells him. Who? Why? (For good or evil?) How does that person or being know?

B) He finds a record such as a diary, an inscription or a painting of the pendant? How does he find the record? What does the record tell him? How does he react?

C) He has a psychic/mental/emotional experience such as a vision, a dream or a memory. What triggers this event?

D) He has an actual experience linked to the 13th Kingdom. For example, he might encounter a door to the Kingdom but, because of his lack of knowledge, trigger a catastrophe that destroys the door.

You could use one of these or a combination. The simplicity or complexity of the plot choices should depend on your story arc, IMO.

I also wonder whether you, as the writer, could temporarily skip over these events. Perhaps as you write about his encounter with the 13th Kingdom, the events leading to its discovery will become clear in your mind.

Ye someone i know told me to just write the scenes as they come to mind, regardless of order, and then organize them into a progressive pattern afterwards. I only realized what he meant after i started writing my WIP, so haven't implemented the idea yet. But my thoughts are pretty linear, and i'm writing to find out what happens, just like the reason a reader reads. So jumping scene to scene doesn't really help.

But i think i'm going to see if i can wiggle in some bits before he gets his pendant. Still need to work out how he figures out what the pendant is, but my experience with writing is somewhat inadequate and i'm yet to learn all the processes of writing a complex piece.

In what circumstances does the mysterious benefactor give the pendant to the MC? (It isn't something that strangers naturally do, is it, giving away jewellery?)

Then perhaps it wasn't a gift, but a task: "Take the pendant to X and she will pay you for your trouble." After that X, might provide more information. Or perhaps the "benefactor" dropped the pendant seemingly by mistake and disappeared before the MC could return it. Using the inscription inside the pendant (or something similar), the MC decides to find its owner, during which search he meets Y, who provides more information. And during either of these activities (delivery/returning the pendant), others may be after the pendant and, one (perhaps fatally wounded) tells the MC something else about it.

That sort of thing.

okay this is a MAJOR spoiler (so read it at own discretion), but hopefully its forgotten by the time the story is published...

The mystery man is his father, who is one of the remaining gods of the land. Obviously the MC doesn't realize this until after his visit to the the 13th kingdom.

The 13th kingdom is the birthplace of the gods, also the source of all magick. When it was sealed, magick effectively ceased to exist.

Here is a brief outline of the WIP (in fact it's more akin to the info you read at the back of the book when deciding whether to read it or not):

Misraka, the thirteenth kingdom, was said to be the birthplace of the gods. When an evil corrupted this kingdom, the gods chose a champion from each of the twelve kingdoms of Amaranthea to protect their world from this evil.

These twelve champions, known as the Aurean Knights, fought this evil, and although it's said none survived, the evil was subdued.

Nearly five hundred years later and the thirteenth kingdom, along wtih the gods who once walked amongst men, is believed to be no more than a myth. But strange events were beginning to take place, indicating a dark threat to the twelve kingdoms of Amarenthea.

William von Ganstein, a boy who survived one such event, must find the thirteenth kingdom and unveil the truth behind the Aurean Legacy.

When William finds and enters Misraka, he breaks this seal, releasing not only the magic, but the evil sealed with it too. That is, of course, the next part of the story. Right now, i need to get him to Misraka in order to set off that event. The pendant is the key to finding Misraka (all of the gods wear one similar to it), but he doesn't have a clue what it is. Neither does he know that the 13th kingdom actually exists (it's faded into a myth by the time of the story). He obviously needs to find out what this pendant is, which will lead to the realization that Misraka exists, which will then send him onto the journey to find it (with a stronger motivation, of course).

It's a piece not only about adventure, but also about friendship, love, war, emotional conflicts, betrayal and many more. But as i said, my mind has hit a blank wall as to how to get that all in. It is, in all aspects, a complex piece (maybe too complicated for my current writing experience), and as i said, my experience with writing is still in its infancy. Knowing what to look out for and exploiting it, is still new to me.

But i see what you are getting at, and I thank you for your advice.

I'm new here so you should probably take this with a pinch of salt. Maybe the person who gave your MC the pendant could have left behind some agents or clues to send the MC on a journey to prepare him** for for when the time comes to open the seal. I don't know if this would fit into your plot or not but just thought I'd chuck it in to try and help.

One of the ideas i had was to have him find a concealed section of the library (thanks to the pendant) which contained a twelfth of the collected knowledge of the remaining gods. Problem here is, the collection is all written in the ancient language of the gods and there wouldn't be translators (the gods, and misraka, have be thought of as myths and all records of it were hidden away, so the language wasn't learned outside of the gods' "circle".)

**But the journey to prepare him is necessary. his character needs to grow, and he, at the moment, is a coward. So that needs to change by the time he gets to misraka.

I sometimes "what if" this kind of thing. Try it even with silly examples. And try to come up with objections, or supporting comments for the examples. So

What if the good fairy told him?

Onward burbling - What good fairy? Has there been any fairies up to this point? Are there bad fairies? Is it a bad fairy in disguise pretending to be a good fairy and setting him up for a nasty fall?

I just sit there, sometimes with a word doc, sometimes with a spreadsheet - because working across columns helps - and keep on burbling until something good floats up.

The other variant is to look at it from each character's viewpoint and ask "what would so and so do next".
Then - what effect does so and so's action have on character 2 etc.

Most of it is chucked away, but good stuff comes from it.

I did this with the original draft of the WIP, before i started writing. I drew up a mind map for the characters and asked, Who is he? What's his goals? and so forth. but i ended up spending too much time, because one answer led to more questions and i never got to writing.

 

[tinkerdan]

One question to ask yourself is how important is the key to his getting there and is the key more important than the knowledge that there is a place to get to.
(I had something similar in a piece I did where there was a hunt for specific items with unrevealed knowledge why the items were so important to get to the final destination and in the case with mine it really wasn't the alleged key that was the key.)

Anyway I think that if you want to stay true then the answer to your question might reside in the following quote.

It's a piece not only about adventure, but also about friendship, love, war, emotional conflicts, betrayal and many more.

I has to derive out of one of the major elements of your story to push those along as he discovers.

Betrayal looks enticing because it is often out of betrayal that something the perpetrator was trying to hide or destroy becomes evident and focal to the MC.

 

[Montero]

I did this with the original draft of the WIP, before i started writing. I drew up a mind map for the characters and asked, Who is he? What's his goals? and so forth. but i ended up spending too much time, because one answer led to more questions and i never got to writing.

I do it at a scene level when I am not sure which way to go next - which is roughly the position you are in. So in my current manuscript I've done it on three occasions - maybe spent a days worth of writing time on it and then stopped. Stopping is also important.
So play with some ideas, write the scenes on what you come up with, carry on and finish the book, then after whatever your edit sequence is (mine is do spell check and general tidy) I then park it for a month or two and work on something else, then come back and re-read the whole manuscript with a sense of distance and see whether it is all logical.

If you are uncertain that the book really hangs together, then draw out a basic logic tree - large sheet of paper. Something again that is for an afternoon or two not for months - so decision A to decision B etc (just the key, plot turn point decisions). You can look at it to see
a) if it is plausible that it follows the course it does
b) whether the decisions by each character are plausible. (Not necessarily consistent with the previous decision by the character, as some people are a lot more variable in decision making than others, but plausible for the character.)

Then try it on a beta reader if you are lucky enough to have one.

You can also just skip over the troublesome scene and leave a note to sort it later - when you have finished the book, what you need/write later might point the way back to what that scene needs to have, in order for the rest of the book to make sense.

 

[Montero]

Further to previous - it doesn't have to be perfect the first time - just the last

It is easy to try and make the first draft perfect, but sometimes pushing through to the end, then improving the second draft is the way to go.

 

[Colbey Frost]

Does it matter right now? Simply put 'The MC finds out' make a note of where this is and continue. If this is stopping you from writing, just remove the problem and come back to it. I would not do this with everything, only for massive things you can't figure out... like once or twice per novel. I don't do this myself because I'm a planner, so I always know where I'm at, but for a painter such as yourself, it seems odd that you would get hung up on a single brush stroke when you know damn well you're going to paint over that bit again anyway.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

I had forgotten that a first draft isn't about perfection, but more about getting the story written. It's only from the second draft that the knots get tied and the pieces put together. I got too caught up planning what happens next and getting what i'd already written perfect, that i neglected the point of a first draft.

The last few days I had no motivation to write because of this blockage, but now I feel motivated again. I know what i want to convey alongside the plot and i will work hard to complete this novel.

Thank you for reminding me of this, and helping me get my motivation back. I know this has been said many times before, but Chrons is awesome, and i'm glad i stumbled across it. Having a community like this really helps.

Let the writing commence once more...