# Chapter Ideas



## TyraWadman (Sep 25, 2021)

I am stumped and have been stumped for over a year on this. I am writing a long story, many characters that all tie into the main theme, but I'm having a hard time coming up with misadventures that take place in between. Its medieval dark-fantasy and revolves around things like mental health. War. Politics. Brutality.

I've got the beginning, the middle and the majority of the end fleshed out, but I don't feel there is enough to pass off as a grand adventure. 

I've got monsters of all shapes and sizes, scenarios for all different emotions but I can't quite piece together a full 'episode' with all of them.

 What do?


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## O.D.D. (Sep 25, 2021)

Without jumping headlong into the matter of the story itself, something that can happen with writing is you bog yourself down really bad if you sit there for hours trying to make it work.  Sometimes if you kind of take a break, do something else unrelated to clear your head, then come back to it things start lining up better in your head, or you have that "eureka" moment.


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## TyraWadman (Sep 25, 2021)

O.D.D. said:


> Without jumping headlong into the matter of the story itself, something that can happen with writing is you bog yourself down really bad if you sit there for hours trying to make it work.  Sometimes if you kind of take a break, do something else unrelated to clear your head, then come back to it things start lining up better in your head, or you have that "eureka" moment.



I've been slacking for over a year now in hopes something would strike, but nope. ;n; 
Maybe once I've moved and get a change of scenery...


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## Faustus (Oct 4, 2021)

Well, you could try this: pick your favourite character and scenario from the ones you already have and jump into writing that 'in medias res' without much regard to the preceding events. Write a page or two about what's going on, then jump back in time and try to write a brief outline of how he/she/they got into that situation in the first place.


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## TyraWadman (Oct 4, 2021)

Faustus said:


> Well, you could try this: pick your favourite character and scenario from the ones you already have and jump into writing that 'in medias res' without much regard to the preceding events. Write a page or two about what's going on, then jump back in time and try to write a brief outline of how he/she/they got into that situation in the first place.



I do have a lot of these already too, I just can't seem to bridge them together. TuT


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## Miles Marsalis (Oct 4, 2021)

It's more important to first establish what events you definitely know and want in the narrative than to worry about adding material in between those events because you feel like you have to. Get the essential part down on paper first and then rework the plot later.


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## Punji (Oct 4, 2021)

I believe Miles is correct. You can always come back and flesh out the rest of the story's in-between parts later. Sometimes they might even come to you naturally as you go!

The worst thing to do is nothing, I think. If you've got solid ideas of the overall plot and how the story events occur, you have enough to work with already. Then it just becomes a game of how did A lead to B.


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## TyraWadman (Oct 14, 2021)

Because of this hurdle, I have not been able to touch my writing for months...
and I don't even remember half of it.

Maybe that's the secret.
Perhaps I was just too familiar with it.
Now, it's like I can have a fresh new take on things! Maybe?

Either way, I am now re-reading and discovering changes I don't remember making before taking said break. 
But I do that all the time.
I'll write it one way, go back a week later and subconsciously revert it back to the old version without even realizing (I don't keep alternate copies). 

**SIGH**


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## Miles Marsalis (Oct 16, 2021)

Sometimes it's not a bad thing to take your eyes off what you've written if you're stuck on plotting or demotivated. 

It's also not unusual to go through multiple revisions of material before you're happy with the final product.

Writing can be a messy process.


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## Outré (Oct 16, 2021)

Saving versions of a project is a life saver if you can get use to it. I don’t write stories but I do write/compose music as a hobby, sometimes I’ll mess with something so much that I will be like NO, I need to go back to an earlier version. The software I use makes it way easy to save alternate versions in the same project… not sure if there is any writing software like that, but if there is I recommend it… versions, versions, versions. With any type of project.


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