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the resistance is intel
Sometimes block isn't fear or fatigue. Sometimes it's your story telling you the next move is wrong and you're refusing to listen.
The avoidance you feel as a writer is often the same avoidance the character feels — which means your instincts know something your outline hasn't admitted yet. We walk through how to interview your own resistance instead of muscling through it, the three diagnostic questions I ask before forcing a scene, and why the avoided chapter is almost always the secret center of the book. Stop treating your instincts like laziness. They're the only editor you can trust at 11 p.m. when nobody else is awake to argue with you.
The block-as-plot diagnostic
| Symptom | Possible plot message |
|---|---|
| Can't write the scene | The character would never actually do this |
| Keep skipping it | It belongs later in the book |
| Hate the scene | It's necessary but you've written it before |
| Bored writing it | The stakes are wrong |
| Avoiding the chapter | It's the real center of the story |
The three diagnostic questions
- If I weren't writing this scene, what would my character actually do next?
- What does this scene cost the character emotionally?
- Am I avoiding the truth this scene wants to tell?
Most plot problems sound like writer's block until you ask the resistance a polite question. Then it becomes a confession.
— L.A. Walton, The Book Maven
From the Maven Catalog
- Master Course — The Plot Whisperer
- eBook — When the Story Pushes Back
- Planner — Story Architecture Planner
- Toolkit — Plot Diagnosis Toolkit
Don't force the scene. Interview it. Then write what it actually wants you to write — even if that means burning the previous three chapters. Burn them. You'll write better ones.