172
b. The second list is all the things that could
happen that are not what readers would
expect. Write your new scenes based on
the second list.
4. Stop and do some research. Talk to an expert.
Read a book. Google some articles. Find a new
and interesting nugget and work it into the story.
5. Switch the point of view. Rewrite the scene in
fi rst person if you’re in third, or vice versa, and
see what happens.
6. Go backward to the point in the story where things
got slow or predictable and create a new path.
7. Start a new voice journal for the point-of-view
character and ask her some questions about
what’s going on. Let the character tell you what’s
happening and why things are stalling. Then
have the character come up with a solution.
8. Bring a new character into the scene. Make it a
startling entrance and fi gure out how to justify
it later.
9. Open a novel at random and fl ip pages until you
fi nd dialogue. Take the fi rst line of dialogue you
see and put it into the mouth of your point-of-
view character and start writing a scene from
there. Why did she just say that?
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