I have gotten Casey into a corner. He’s becoming intolerable to everyone now. Where do I put him?
Notes on getting yourself out of the writer’s corner.
The trick to getting yourself out of the corner is to first get some distance from your story. Take a walk. Put the story down for a day or two. (I know it’s hard!) Give your subconscious a chance to work out the details of fixing the problem. Then go back to your script and read with as critical of an eye as you can. Something is bound to jump out at you that will need to be changed. If you just can’t see it, send the work to a trusted friend. Fresh eyes can be a big help at these times. Link.
Okay, that sounds like a good idea. I can still have him there-but-not-there – there but not interacting as much. More like Eeep, to watch and listen.
Then I found this blog entry. Basically when a character get out of control, she stops and says to it, “Go write your own book.” That’s all well and good, but this is RP. This totally first draft. And once that horse is out of the barn, there’s not much I can do to bring him back, unless I retcon – evil word that is – or pull something out of my ass which makes it contrived.
There was also this. I think switching mediums, writing crap, reading and writing will help. Maybe pull out an old character and play around with him.
Though I got a really good writing prompt from Writing Excuses.
Writing Prompt: Describe a food that is familiar to you from the point of view of a character who has never encountered it, nor anything like it.