I had an email a few weeks ago from a writer named Taylor asking:

“I am writing a story that I love, but I keep going off track and getting stuck at points . . . I don’t want to give up on my story. Do you have any advice to make the story more fun and interesting to write?”

As I mentioned in the beginning of this series, story beginnings tend to be my happy place. Even though I still experience frustrations (see last week’s post) this is typically the fun, easy part for me.

Once I’ve cleared chapter three, however, I get a bit more distractable. Suddenly, I’m dying to work on that other story idea from a few months ago. Or redesign my website. Or try to be excellent at Instagram. Basically do anything except write my book.

I know I’m not alone in this. Beginnings feel exciting. They’re full of promise and freshness. Middles are not. That’s why we talk about goals and remaking ourselves in January but rarely June.

There’s a lot of hard stuff about writing a novel, and like we’ve already talked about, nobody accidentally does anything hard. Sometimes you will have to work hard just to get yourself to sit in that chair and open your Word doc instead of Netflix.

We talked about setting up a routine in week one and rewards in week three, and this is why! Because your story won’t always feel fun and interesting, even if you’re writing a book that will ultimately feel fun and interesting to millions of readers. I guarantee you J. K. Rowling didn’t love every second she wrote the Harry Potter series. When you read stories that are absorbing and fluid, you’re reading the result of hours and hours of hard work on the part of the author. Per scene, most likely.

Typically around the time I leave chapter three (which tends to be around the time my main character is reluctantly choosing to go on her adventure) I start to feel the way Taylor mentioned. I’ll recognize something in my plot that isn’t going to work like I thought it would, or my research will reveal something that overthrows what I had planned. I remember all that hard work that lies ahead of me, and I have to work to keep myself from feeling stuck or bored.

Here’s what works for me:

Focus on the scene

Often we have these big story ideas that sound great, but as we try to make them work on the page, we struggle. I’ve found that I’m helped immensely by narrowing my focus to the individual scene. I don’t have to make the whole novel work right now, I just need to make this scene work.

I focus on a few questions when I’m working on a scene.

What did my main character (or point of view character) want or expect when she came into this scene?

Sometimes the reason I’m stuck or disenchanted with a part of the story is that I haven’t figured out what my character is really doing in a scene. What did she come here for? What is she motivated by? What did she expect when she showed up?

What obstacles arise?

Often a scene isn’t working yet because I don’t know what surprises my character within the scene. I’ll write that she expects she’ll go to Algebra class, learn some math, and then move onto her next class . . . and then she does exactly that. Boring, right? The Algebra class scene can only be interesting if my character is surprised.

Or if your character is actively trying to accomplish something in a scene, then the scene can only be interesting if an obstacle arises. Maybe she accomplishes what she sets out to, but a new obstacle presents itself. Or she doesn’t accomplish her goal and has to come up with a new plan.

What decision will she make now?

Characters making decisions is your best tool for advancing a story in an interesting, organic way.

One of the reasons The Hunger Games is so compelling is Katniss’s choice to volunteer for the games. She expects to go to the reaping and is nervous about her own name being called, but then it’s her younger sister. And so she decides to volunteer in her place. That’s so much more interesting than if they’d drawn Katniss’s name, even though the result is the same.

Your character has infinite choices they can make, and your job is to put them in situations where they’re making interesting decisions. Where they have to decide between two hard things, not one obviously great thing and one obviously not-great thing.

You Should Find Every Scene Interesting

You are your book’s first reader, and this means you must find the story interesting first. If there’s nothing in the scene that’s interesting to you, of course you don’t want to write it! Who wants to spend time writing scenes that we don’t find interesting?

So, what will make the scene feel interesting to you? Chances are, if the scene becomes interesting to you, it’ll become interesting to the reader too.

Now, it’s possible to go a bit too far with this advice. Ideally, you’re looking for something interesting that also serves the core story. I’m completely guilty of throwing in a cute mobster because I was bored with the scene, and what book doesn’t need a cute mobster? (Lots of books! Including that one! Later, I spent a lot of time cutting scenes that had my cute mobster.)

Separate story telling from story writing

Only in the last couple years have I learned how to separate story telling from writing, and why I should do this. I’ve learned to love writing synopses, because I’ve learned to see it as just telling myself the story before I figure out how to write it pretty.

Something that works well for me is to write a couple paragraphs about the scene before I try to actually write the scene. When I do that, I separate figuring out what happens from figuring out how to write it well. Once I know what’s going to happen, then I find it much easier to figure out the mechanics of how to show it to a reader.

Try working backward

If you’re stuck, sometimes it’s helpful to identify the next thing you know and work backward from there.

For example, say you know that your character needs to wind up at the scene of the murder for a showdown with the villain, but you can’t figure out how to get her there. She has vowed never to go to that place again and tonight is her sister’s wedding. You thought she’d be willing to leave, but it turns out she’s not. (We’ve all had a time or two that our characters show surprising willpower!)

Start with what you know—we have a villainous showdown to get to at the scene of the murder—and work backward. So, if she won’t decide to go, we’re going to have to drag her there. Could she be kidnapped? Who else might want her there? What else is around the murder scene? Is there something she might need to pick up for her sister?

Sometimes when you’re trying to figure out how to get your character to move from point A to point B, it can feel like you’re banging your head on a wall between the two. Often, starting at B and moving back toward your character can do the trick!

Phone a friend

I used to resist the idea of inviting anyone in to help me with my story. I took a total toddler mentality and wanted to do things “by myself.” But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve struggled for hours or days with a plot hole or problem, broken down and asked a writer friend for help, only to have them fix it for me in about 5 minutes.

Sometimes we are so zoomed in on our story as it is, we can’t see other solutions that are obvious to those who aren’t so close to the story. Don’t be shy about pulling in a friend!

What helps you when you’re stuck or bored with your story?