Isn’t that the truth! The juggling of ideas, writing time and commitments. There are times when I’m certainly n and year circus music in the background of life in that 3 ring circus ( giggling at myself here). Do you ever feel like life’s moments need a theme song? What would yours be? Mine is definitely full of carnival tunes and words like menagerie, spectacle, 3-ring, and death-defying-feats! Hahahaha!
This is a great method, @Kas, Sometimes working back to front can be easier to put steps together.
If it’s ok to add to what @kas is saying, I find when I get stuck or just unsure where to go next in the story, I will write about a basic, daily human task for my character.
Like taking a shower, eating, doing laundry. What kind of shower for example, hot or cold depends on what else is happening.
Say the protagonist needs a cold shower due to intense chemistry with the wrong person, or the right person, but it is unrequited sexual attraction.
Maybe a hot steamy moment with the right person is FINALLY happening, but it was interrupted before it could come to fruition. (Of course that drags out the tension even more for the reader).
Maybe the character was up all night working a case and has to be in court in 30 mins with no time to sleep (or drinking all night and needs to sober up).
You can definitely get the idea here. The options are endless, motivation for action in the mundane daily chores of life, spurs on the next/previous scene. Propelled by the “why” of it all.
That type of prompt for my characters always gets the actively writing, ball rolling again.
(I have noticed that some of my favorite writers use a similar method to make characters feel real and relateable.)
Kathy Reich, for example does this with her Temperance Brennan (forensic anthropologist, tv show “Bones” was based on) novels.
She separates events in her books with, eat+shower+sleep/no sleep (love interest canoodling or difficult problem that’s keeping her up).
Now i don’t know if it’s simply filler, but she uses these moments to Segway into the next scene. By giving the character a place to receive the next, clue/instruction/revelation/achievement/setback or other inciting incident.
You get the idea.
Ok, I’m just rambling now (too much caffeine).
I do REALLY hope this formula gives inspiration for un-stuck-ness in the messy middle. (Courtesy of Kathy Reich’s fine example) like it did for me. It was a breakthrough “Ah-ha” moment in my writer’s journey that I’ve been meaning to share with the group.
Cheers!