I have been working on my story for NaNoWriMo, and I am stuck! I know what I want to happen in the scene, but I can't get the character's conversation started. Once I get it started I shouldn't have an issue, but I am so stuck! I tried going in at it from a side angle, but that led me to another dead end, with excess words that don't add anything to the story, and really don't belong there... I was reading tips for overcoming writer's block online and one of them was to go somewhere with lots of people and listen to their conversations. This is a great idea! Except for the fact that I'm sick and have 4 small children... so that's a no go. The next suggestion was physical exercise! Yet another great idea, I would love to go to go for a run or something and just clear my head. But we come back to the factor of four small children and being sick... Another idea was to just randomly write and see what comes out. So that is what you are reading if you are reading this, and I apologize in advance. You may stop reading now if you wish.
Let's start by me writing about where I am in my story, shall we? Elizabeth has agreed to an arranged marriage with Dean, their pastor and his wife have invited them both over to speak about the details. They ate supper with all of the children there (the pastors daughter and Elizabeth's 3 small children.) and then the kids all went to go get ice cream (and then the pastors daughter is taking them home and staying with them so the adults can talk undisturbed). So anyway, they have just moved to the living room to get down to business and talk about the details, and I haven't a clue how to get the conversation rolling!
So that's it. I'm stuck. I tried going at it from a side angle and having them start with small talk, but that fell flat. I just don't know how to have them open the subject and no amount of small talk is going to get me there. I could go at it bluntly and just have one of them say "So let's get right to it, we're here to talk about your marriage." But that sounds really weird to me. And what would they say next? Who would say it? What should they talk about first? The kids? Their jobs? School? Why the marriage was purposed? I just don't know where to start?!?!
So I am stuck. I'm tempted to read a romance novel and see how other authors have handled similar situations, but I don't really want to copy anyone else. I want this to be entirely my work, so borrowing from someone else isn't really practical... I could just keep typing random nonsensical thoughts, but I am running out of those... hmmm what to do! BLAH!!!
So it occurred to me that I was skipping a major step! I had the pastor open them in prayer! That added an important element, but I am still stuck from there...
I don't suppose anyone has any tips for overcoming specific writer's block, or on how to get the ball rolling in their conversation?
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