Here’s a common problem: you’re working on that novel or short story, and some scenes come to you so vividly, almost completely formed.  You hammer them out on your keyboard, and even if you have to revise them a few dozen times, these scenes never leave you too frustrated, never give you too much grief. 

But then there’s those scenes in the middle, the ones that serve as “bridges.” I’ve spent many hours working on bridges just to find them lifeless and dull – the kinds of scenes that just don’t have the same flow as the other ones.  I end up deleting them and I’m back on page one (literally). 

In workshop recently, my professor Carol Anshaw recommended “writing in islands.” Write those scenes that come to you first, in separate chunks, skipping over all those bridges.  Once you write those islands, and the story begins to take on a life of its own, you may find those “bridge scenes” you were sweating over aren’t necessary. 

So stop using writer’s block as an excuse.  Write in islands.  Bomb those bridges – you just might end up not needing them anyway. 

And speaking of novel writing, all you aspiring novelists should check out StoryStudio’s new Novelists Roundtable.  The Roundtable is not a workshop, but a place for novel writers to get advice, share ideas, and work through problems.  Even if you’re “writing in islands,” you might not want to be a total castaway!