My novel about a lighthouse keeper stalled out after 30,000 words

I got stuck trying to map out the family history of the main character and just lost all momentum. Has anyone else hit a wall with world-building and found a way to push through it?

3 comments

3 Comments

holly8981mo ago

My first draft always hits a wall around 25k words too. I find it helps to skip the tricky backstory and just write a dramatic scene from later in the story. What's one exciting thing you know will happen at the lighthouse?

reed.hannah1mo ago

Skip the family tree. Write the storm scene instead.

christopher9526d ago

Isn't the family history the whole point of getting stuck in the first place? I see it differently than holly898. If you skip it now, that big empty spot in your character's past will just haunt you later. Maybe try writing the family history as a messy letter the keeper is trying to write, not as a perfect chart. That way you're still moving the story forward, but you're facing the problem head on instead of jumping over it.