Section three of In Time has been the longest, sloggiest sloggy slog I’ve ever worked through. That includes the interminable chapter of my thesis that lasted over a year (at least there I was actively, consciously, and quite effectively avoiding the writing).
When my wonderful critique group read section one, part of their feedback was that it all went a bit too slowly, that just when our human protagonist was on the verge of decisive action, he drowned himself in alcohol, and the whole thing was less than electric.
Now, becoming intentionally and insanely drunk seems a perfectly rational response to his situation, lost in a world he doesn’t understand and all. But, I was worried, largely because section three included more drinking. A lot more drinking. Drinking as an intentional dodge of making a choice or doing anything or even knowing what day it was.
Clearly, that wouldn’t do.
So I took the other main character–the one that was encouraging and enabling the drinking–and made him a teetotaller.
And something happened.
I can’t say that it was magical or immediately made all the writing easy and smooth or anything like that. But taking what was a dominant, defining character trait and turning it on its head began to reveal a totally different way of being for the character and additional levels of interaction between the two of them. It helped to slowly create some solid ground, some traction in the slog.
This opened my eyes to the possibilities contained in reversing a character before they are fully formed. I don’t know how this character will end up, and it may very well be that this writing was all a way to get out of a rut. But it also reminded me that the characters and the plot are in an eternal dance: neither is at the service of the other, and as an author there is high utility in dramatically changing the rhythm from time to time.
So, try it: next time you’re stuck, take a defining trait of one of your characters and reverse it. Write one and a half scenes with the new trait. I would bet that, at that point, you will either have momentum in a new direction, or additional depth you can use to help you get out of being stuck.
It’s not a perfect cure by any means: I’m still slogging. But the end is in sight, and at some point I may even be able to move on to section four.