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Strategies for Overcoming Writer's Block by Analyzing Story Elements
Learn how to beat writer's block by analyzing your story's genre, protagonist's goals, and underlying themes. Get practical tips and examples to help you navigate through creative challenges in storytelling.
In today's episode, I'm sharing my five favorite strategies for getting unstuck while writing. Here's a preview of what's included:
[01:30] If you need help pushing past the first few pages of your novel, I have a brand new workshop just for you! It's called How to Hook Readers in Your First Five Pages. Click here to learn more about the workshop or to enroll for $47.
[02:00] Strategy #1: Zoom out and look at the big picture of your story before making any micro-level changes. Answer these three questions: What's your story's main genre? What does your protagonist want and need? What's the theme of your story?
[05:25] Strategy #2: Look at the obligatory scenes and conventions of your genre for inspiration and guidance. These will help you flesh out your story and make sure it’s well structured.
[07:20] Strategy #3: Consider what kind of subplots you already have in your story and/or what kind of subplots you might want to add in. Use the obligatory scenes and conventions of your subgenre to flesh these out.
[08:35] Strategy #4:Create a flexible outline for your story that you can use as a place to explore new ideas or to capture changes you want to make to scenes you’ve already written. Update it as you go.
[10:25] Strategy #5: Evaluate the narrative drive in your existing scenes. Does each scene lead into or cause the next scene to happen in a logical way?
[12:00] Key points and episode recap.
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Links mentioned in this episode:
👉 Looking for a transcript? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, scroll down below the episode player until you see the transcript.
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Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode