Painted Myself Into a Corner

So I have written myself into a corner with my current project. Every time I look at it I think "Holy God, how the hell am I gonna get out of this?" And in past instances, when I have successfully navigated my way out of the corner with a good outline and it comes time to put it to paper, I usually sit down, look at the computer and say "Holy God, how am I gonna make this work?" Usually if I stop bitching about it and actually write, things don't turn out half bad, but it takes a couple of days to convince myself that it's alright write something that sucks just to get the story done.

Does this ever happen to anybody else? If so, how do you deal with it?
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Scruffy|SRD Books

Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you stop bitching about it and get your ass to work?
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"Smacking yourself with a thawed meat-hammer never has a desired effect." - Jinxted

"Life's too short to get wrapped around the axle about the little things." - SK

-The First Law of Geography: Everything is Connected to Everything Else.

Wingnut wrote:

Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you stop bitching about it and get your ass to work?

Don't you know me at all? I have to complain about something for at least three weeks before I actually DO anything about it. I'm like Congress in that way, only with the words three weeks replacing the word forever.
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Scruffy|SRD Books

SRD:

You just described my daily work regimen. Srsly. No, srsly.

chris wrote:

SRD: You just described my daily work regimen. Srsly. No, srsly.

It's comforting to know that I'm in esteemed company, then.
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Scruffy|SRD Books

sugarraydodge wrote:

chris wrote: SRD: You just described my daily work regimen. Srsly. No, srsly. It's comforting to know that I'm in esteemed company, then.

I usually serve steamed company with vegetables.
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"If you allow yourself to be offended, then you're a bit of [a] nitwit."
(Christopher Moore)

You go back 5 chapters or so to the last action scene and write out 5 more diversions and possibilities. What kind of a question was that.
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Your religion, you miserable man, begins in your stomach and ends in a lavatory - Nodar Dumbadze

Have you tried opening a window?

What is your story question? What does your MC want? Is the answer yes or no? Maybe you're running into troubles because it's a little wishy-washy in that department.

If you get that much in your head, you should be able to work out the particulars.

simba major wrote:

What is your story question? What does your MC want? Is the answer yes or no? Maybe you're running into troubles because it's a little wishy-washy in that department.

The MCs are two vampire FBI agents who just got knocked out by the Minotaur who works for a japanese man who kidnaps women, downloads their brains into robots and then kills them. I need to figure out how they escape and beat the bad guys without adding a fourth element into the mix. Vampires, the Minotaur and Robots are enough insane elements for a 12,000 word novella...
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Scruffy|SRD Books

sugarraydodge wrote:

simba major wrote: What is your story question? What does your MC want? Is the answer yes or no? Maybe you're running into troubles because it's a little wishy-washy in that department. The MCs are two vampire FBI agents who just got knocked out by the Minotaur who works for a japanese man who kidnaps women, downloads their brains into robots and then kills them. I need to figure out how they escape and beat the bad guys without adding a fourth element into the mix. Vampires, the Minotaur and Robots are enough insane elements for a 12,000 word novella...

That's it?

So simple!

The two vampire FBI agents are also robots.

*mumbles a la decrepit Elvis* "Thank-you, thank-you very much."

I had a similar problem at the start of my project where I found myself in a place that I couldn't work with, so, being near the start of my story, I changed the rules and magically, everything worked out. Of course, that's a dangerous thing to do as the reader might think the scenario a little too incredulous, but it worked for me.

Basically, "place A" turned out instead to be "place B" and B was much easier to get out of than A.
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Twitter: jefftunes

Depends on what "rules" you have set up... In many books, the FBI agents don't have reflectionsbecause they have no souls... or maybe that's vampires... whatever... perhaps a similar thing can prevent brain downloads. If you haven't used that rule, perhaps part of their FBI initiation was a 'brain firewall' to prevent unauthorized downloading, or some sort of virus/worm/malware that destroys any equipment that tries unauthorized donloads and alerts the FBI to the malicious activity...


Yeah, these ideas pretty much suck, and I guess you didn't ask for help, anyway, sorry... forget I said anything.
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Avoid being normal -- John Lennon

You know what's missing? Ninja rats on Harleys!


Just kidding, it's already been done...

Thanks for the suggestions. I still haven't found a simple way out of this one. I may just have to pull a major Deus Ex Machina out of my butt...
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Scruffy|SRD Books