Anna Staniszewski

I’ve been going back and revising a slightly older manuscript, one that I love but just can’t seem to get right. While the characters and the overall premise work, the plot keeps giving me trouble. This week I realized that I would essentially need to start from scratch with the story and use some of the existing scenes if they still worked. It seemed like making an outline first might help, but when I tried to make one I got even more stuck.

After a lot of staring, I had a brilliant idea (one that I read about somewhere, but can’t remember where). I would take a book with a similar energy and humor to mine and use it to help inspire me. So I sat down with one of my favorite books, Whales on Stilts by M.T. Anderson, which also happens to be for about the same age group as my own project. Whales is much more tongue-in-cheek than what I’m going for in my story, but the plot moves quickly and the characters are unique and appealing. I went to sit outside so as not to have the computer nearby distracting me, and I read the book carefully, jotting down anything I noticed.

The things I wrote down weren’t earth-shattering (“the villain is alluded to on page one” and “we’re told what makes the main character special on page two”) but they helped me think about elements in my own writing. When is my villain introduced in the story?  How do my readers know what makes my character special? I realized that I was getting so wrapped up in the humor of my story and the wacky characters that I’d neglected some fundamental storytelling elements. Eureka!

After I sucked as much inspiration out of Anderson’s work as I could, I went back and started reworking my story. It still has a long way to go, but I finally feel unstuck and ready to see where it will take me. So next time you’re lacking inspiration, find a book you admire, one with a similar feeling to what you’re trying to create in your own writing, and really examine the story. I’m not saying you should copy the techniques you find there; instead, let them inspire you and help you brainstorm. Let them help lead you to the story you want to tell.