![]() They occur when your story is unclear, unbelievable, or boring. SYMPTOM: “3 grunts” refer to the three types of negative reactions (grunts) readers might have as they react to a specific part of your story. Orson Card describes them in his book Characters & Viewpoints. ISSUE 2: I have a 3 grunt issue in the story I can’t overstate the importance of spending lots of consistent time focused on the project. Note: if I haven’t worked on a project for a while, then it WILL go cold. So I need to feed my imagination by going out and gathering sparks (research, doing takes on the question at hand which include lists, outlines, sketches, drafts or try of the many idea generators I’ve collected) and perform Creative Q&A (see the lesson in creative Q&A for more details). And I need to do it frequently and consistently. This most often happens when I don’t have the story, just a bunch of ideas. I literally don’t know what to write.įIX: I’m out of zing. SYMPTOM: I don’t know what supposed to happen next or what the characters are supposed to say or do. ISSUE 1: I’ve run to the end of my imagination–I’m out of juice. I’ve listed below how I tell which breaker I’m dealing with and what I do for each. There are many trance breakers, including bonk-your-head-on-the-keyboard sleepiness, but the four below are the biggest breakers for me. If I’m off track, I try to determine where and how and how to get back on track. If I’m out of juice, I do the things that get the juice back. ![]() ![]() So what I need to do is determine the cause of the block. The Four Trance Breakers, How to Identify Them, and How to Fix Them Well, unless I’m not dedicating time. But then that’s something different. So when the trance goes, it just means I’m out of juice or am off-track. In fact, I don’t know any author who doesn’t experience this when writing a large project like a novel. Don’t expect your process to work any differently. It’s just how it works. That fact is that THE TRANCE COMES AND GOES. God didn’t want me to write.Īll that angst was just rubbish. Didn’t have the right personality type (I’m an ENFJ). I used to panic and tell myself I sucked. ![]() Expect the Trance to Come and Goīut the fact is that while I may come up with a cool idea or six, start my story with a bang, move to the next scene or chapter (or even to the end), at some point something always suddenly pulls the plug, and everything grinds to a sickening halt. When I’m in the trance, the electricity is flowing, the ideas are coming, and I’m constantly thinking to myself: “Ah, yes, that’s what he’d do,” or, “Oh, man, yeah, this is what’s got to happen now,” or “Oh, baby, that’s perfect.” I can see the story roll out in front of me like a red carpet. And I’m trying to do all I can to get into the writer’s trance. When the sparks combine in the right way I get into the writer’s trance. Whatever it’s size, it’s the feeling of “cool,” “whoa,” or “oh, boy, this has possibilities.” Sometimes it’s very small, a little zzszt and it’s gone, sometimes it’s overpowering. What I’ve learned about a spark is that it’s like an electric jolt. Some might add text as a basic ingredient, and while, yes, it does have an effect on the reader’s experience, it’s not the heart of the matter. I can’t get out of my pre-draft stage until all four are humming with current. I categorize ideas by setting, character, problem, and plot–what I consider the basic ingredients of story. Good ideas carry current, they spark my interest, they tug my heart strings, they turn me on. ![]()
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