No, not someone to sell your work for you.

Those characters you are writing about? The ones with the serious problem that they have to do something about?

Yeah, them.

They have to fix the problem. Deus ex machina not allowed.

As a writer you try to stay somewhat in touch with what is possible for them to do. And sometimes it’s really hard. Sometime a story just isn’t working.

I’ve got a story that addresses a big turning point in my current World, and story just isn’t . . . well, it’s been sitting on my hard drive so long, it had to get transferred to my new computer, where its utter failure to work irritated me all over again. 

So, tools to unstick it? My first go-to is to map it against the Hero’s Journey. Meh. Kinda complex. How about, how many try-fail sequences have I stuck in there?

Not helping? Wrong tool? All right. Back to the VERY basics.

See, at the most stripped down, absolute bare bones of “what is a story” the minimum is something like . . .

(1) Here’s a character.

(2) Here’s a problem that matters to him.

(3) Here’s how he solves it.

(4) Here’s what he’s like after he’s dealt with it.

Well . . . just spotted the problem. That’s unfortunate.

My main character isn’t the one doing the solving.

That’s why I can’t write any further.

(Yes, sometimes my back-brain has trouble explaining things to my forebrain. This time it must have taken three years for it to get through.)

So . . . now what to do? Well, with other stories I’ve added to the start and made the character who can solve the problem into the main character and former main character can just sulk around or get over it and help.

(No, it’s okay! You can call off the men with the white I-love-me-jacket! I know my characters aren’t real. Really!)

Or, as in this case, back off and see where the MC can in fact, have an epiphany (boot to the rear, BIG HINT, new information, whatever works!) then step up and solve the problem himself. Probably with some help from the characters that previously looked like the only ones who could figure it out, mind you.

But the Main Character had the agency. He’s the one who will make it work. And he’ll grow from the experience, and look forward toward a new, brighter future that he’ll also make work.

And this irritating itch of “unfinished business” will be off of my back as well.

I hope.

So . . . anyone else have a problem with the MC not getting the job done?

What did you do? Apart from tossing the story on the bonfire . . . however tempting . . .