Writing Yourself Out Of A Corner

What do you do when you realize that you’ve written yourself into a corner with your new story? You either write yourself out of it again or you bury the story. There really are no other choices.

It might be because I’m a discovery writer that I find myself in a corner every now and then. If I planned my plots in advance, I might spot a problem earlier and could rework it then. Only, I personally wouldn’t get a single short story finished if I plotted it in advance. My writing just doesn’t work that way.

Recently, I realized that I had written myself into a corner with the next Black Knight Agency novel and I’m not completely sure what I will do to get out of that corner again - but in this case, giving up is not an option for me.

But what does it mean when you ‘write yourself into a corner?’ Well, very much the same as with a character who finds themselves in a corner, threatened by enemies and unable to escape. Your story has reached a point where you can’t continue and have no idea what to do. Unlike the character, however, you can simply erase the mistakes you made and choose a different path instead. Lucky you. Or not, because reworking a piece of your story (and often a big one) is no fun.

First of all, you need to ask yourself where you did a wrong turn. Where you went left when you should have gone right - or the other way around. This moment can be a long time before the corner. I will have to rework the main premise for the novel mentioned - because I’m not going to do a second ‘underworld takeover’ story set right after “Going Legal.” How much of the chapters written already will I be able to keep? So far, I don’t know. I’d like to keep some stuff I have started (since there are, of course, several plot threads), but I’m pretty sure that other stuff will have to go. Well, there’ll be other novels to use it in.

Sometimes, you realize that it will take a rewrite of your whole text so far - or everything beyond the very first paragraph or chapter. In such cases, you might want to wipe the slate clean and start over completely, instead of trying to cut and paste and realign. A new start can be a lot easier, depending on how challenging or complicated the work is.

From “Grey Eminence,” I will probably have to drop the murder of a drug lord (investigating it, not committing it) and also the whole ‘rearrangement of the underworld’ part - although that’s just one scene and I could keep it in as a start for Jane’s two more personal arcs: Jane taking over the old lair and making it hers and Jane becoming a consulting criminal can and will stay. I also will absolutely keep the casino heist - perhaps that can be expanded into the major plot line.

Luckily, I hit the corner early there - I’ve also had cases where I realized very late that I had written myself into a corner and had to abandon my story or start it over again. That is why I have a large graveyard of unfinished stories on my hard disk and commit grave robbery on them every now and then.

So, you hit that corner, you realize that you have hit it, you know where you went wrong, and you are ready to rework things. What you need to ask yourself now is why you went wrong. Which plot thread, which theme or topic sent you the wrong way. Why did you think the direction was right or a lot of fun to take? You need to figure out why you have written yourself into a corner before. Were you just sloppy? Did you think it would be the best or easiest way to go? Or was the premise interesting, but didn’t fit with the characters or the other plots? If you don’t look at why you went wrong, chances are the next corner is, well, just around the corner.

Usually, it helps to take a step back and look at what you have and what you want. I have a few scenes and plots I don’t want to lose, but I also don’t want to write the same basic plot again for the next novel in the series. That’s why I’ve hit a corner, realizing I was going to do just that.

I have two choices: I can accept that I will write the same basic plot again or I can figure out how to put a new main plot in with what I want to keep (Jane’s sub-plots of slipping back into the criminal world and the casino heist plot). If that means repurposing the murder plot for another novel or changing it so it will fit with Jane’s sub-plot (as she’s in the underworld again), that is what I will have to do. Since writing the same plot again is out of the question, I’m currently trying to figure out what kind of plot to put in instead and how to entwine it with the plots I already have.

Writing yourself into a corner can happen. It’s easy to take the wrong turn while you’re writing or plotting your story, but I guess it’s easier to do that when you’re a discovery writer and, thus, don’t really plot. The important thing is not to avoid the corner (because sometimes it’s unavoidable), but to know how to get out of it again.