The opening to my new novel sucks! The story is going nowhere. The lead character is dull and lifeless. What can I do? Get lost! Yup … when you don’t know what to write next, sometimes you just need to wander around inside your story world and look for something interesting to write about. Maybe your opening isn’t really the right opening, the best opening. It is certainly not the Only opening.

In my new Katie-Lynne Vaughn mystery, my original opening was a home auction that takes place just before Katie takes off to lead a class at a physic retreat. I was trying to create drama, but writing about an auction was tough, and what beginner mistake did I make next? I had a stranger come in at the end and offer Katie a small fortune for her home. Great for her. Terrible for my story. Why? Trouble, and how we face it, reveals character. Standing around an auction, hoping it goes well doesn’t reveal a whole lot about a person. Sure, I can put in a lot of internal dialog, but there is no external force driving my character. What to do? Wander around the story.

In this case, I tried wandering around in the same time and spotted Katie’s grand daughter having a fight with her mom, and the killer heading out on a secret mission. Good. Good. But my Main character was in the middle of snooze fest. So I decided to wander around a little in time. I discovered my main character’s car had recently broken down, on her way back from buying food for her Going Away Party. Poor Katie was in tears at the side of the road: worried about the food, worried about the upcoming home auction, worried about saying goodbye to all her friends, struggling to get a signal on her cell phone, talking to strange men who might offer to help. It was a nightmare for her, and revealed a lot about how our heroine faces terrible pressure. Now THAT’s an interesting opening that makes you demand to know more!

What did I do? Some would say I took Artistic License and made some changes in the story. I like to use the term Jerry Cleaver uses, I took Sadistic License. I looked for Katie at her worst, and wrote about that. If Katie was a real person, that would be harsh and unfair, but she’s not a real person. She’s a made up character, and pushing her buttons pushes the audience’s buttons, and that’s what they’re paying me to do. Something bad happens to Katie-Lynne, she handles it, and the audience wonders how They might have handled it. “Oh, yes, Katie did good there. That’s exactly what I would have done.”

So, if your story is stuck, or if it just sucks, take the time to wander around in your story world–geographically and in time–and look for something that really pushes your character. If you write That scene, you’ll write faster and better, and it will happen almost automatically.

Try it yourself, and use the comment function to tell if getting lost in your story worked for you.