Why You're Getting Stuck (And How Two Simple Techniques Can Fix It)
You know that feeling, right? You're cruising along with your story, the words are flowing, your characters are doing interesting things, and then... nothing. You hit page 50 (or 15, or 150) and suddenly you have no idea what happens next. You stare at the blinking cursor. You reorganize your desk. You convince yourself you need to research 19th-century buttonholes before you can continue.
Welcome to the muddy middle, where stories go to die.
But here's the good news: you're probably getting stuck for two very specific, very fixable reasons. First, you're putting too much pressure on yourself to get everything perfect in one go. Second, you haven't set up enough "stuff" in your story to pay off when you need it.
Let me introduce you to two game-changing techniques that, when combined, can blast through writer's block like dynamite through a paper wall: Chekhov's Gun Inventory and The Two-Draft Method.
The Pressure Problem: Why Perfectionism Paralyzes
Most of us approach writing like we're carving stone. We agonize over every word, every scene, every dialogue exchange, trying to make it perfect before we move on. This is exhausting and, frankly, impossible.
The truth is that first drafts aren't supposed to be good. They're supposed to exist. When you're simultaneously trying to create your story AND make it beautiful, you're asking your brain to do two completely different jobs at once. It's like trying to build a house while also painting it—you're getting in your own way.
This is where The Two-Draft Method comes in.
The Two-Draft Method: Permission to Suck
The Two-Draft Method is elegantly simple: write two separate drafts with two completely different goals.
Draft One: The Vomit Draft
Your only job here is to get the story down. I mean really, truly, just get it down. Write badly. Write in shorthand. Write in bullet points if you need to. Use placeholder names. Write "SOME CLEVER DIALOGUE GOES HERE" and move on.
Give yourself permission to write things like:
- "Then they go to the castle (describe it better later)"
- "She feels sad or whatever"
- "Big fight scene—figure out choreography in next draft"
The goal isn't quality. It's momentum. You're building the skeleton, not painting the Sistine Chapel.
Draft Two: The Real Draft
Now that you know what your story is, you can actually write it. You know where you're going, what matters, what doesn't. You can craft those perfect sentences because you're not paralyzed by the unknown.
This method removes the pressure from Draft One entirely. You can't get stuck if you're allowed to write "idk something happens here" and keep moving. The simple act of reaching THE END—even if it's a mess—gives you something to work with instead of a blank page.
The Setup Problem: Running Out of Road
But here's the other reason you're getting stuck: you haven't planted enough seeds in your story's garden.
Think about the last time you watched a great movie. Remember that moment when something from earlier—a throwaway line, a weird object, a minor character—suddenly became crucial? That's Chekhov's Gun at work, named after Anton Chekhov's famous principle: "If you show a gun in the first act, it must go off in the third."
But here's what writers often miss: the reverse is also true. If you need a gun to go off in the third act, you better have shown it in the first.
The Chekhov's Gun Inventory: Your Story's Toolkit
This is where the Chekhov's Gun Inventory becomes your secret weapon. It's a simple list you maintain of every potential "gun" in your story—every detail, skill, object, relationship, or piece of information that could pay off later.
Your inventory might include:
- Physical objects (a locked box, a rusty key, a photograph)
- Character skills or knowledge (she speaks Russian, he's afraid of heights)
- Relationships (two characters who used to date, a estranged sister)
- Locations (an abandoned warehouse mentioned in passing)
- Information (a family secret, a historical event)
The magic happens when you're stuck. Instead of staring at a blank page thinking "what happens next?", you scan your inventory and ask: "What can I pay off right now?"
Combining the Two: Your New Writing Process
Here's how these techniques work together beautifully:
During Your Vomit Draft:
Keep a running inventory document open alongside your manuscript. Every time you mention something—anything—that could possibly matter later, add it to the inventory. Don't worry about whether you'll actually use it. Just capture it.
When you get stuck, look at your inventory. Can the character suddenly remember her rock climbing experience? Can that weird neighbor from Chapter 2 show up with crucial information? Can they return to that coffee shop where they had their first date?
You're not being clever or crafty yet—remember, this is the vomit draft. You're just unsticking yourself by using tools you've already put in your story.
During Your Real Draft:
Now you can be intentional. Look at your inventory and see what you actually paid off. Those are your real Chekhov's Guns. Go back and strengthen their setup. If the character's rock climbing skill saved the day in Chapter 18, make sure it's mentioned more prominently in Chapter 3.
Remove the guns that never fired—they're just clutter. Add setups for the payoffs you discovered you needed.
The Freedom to Finish
These two techniques work because they remove the two biggest sources of writing anxiety: the pressure to be perfect and the fear of running out of ideas.
The Two-Draft Method tells you: "It's okay if this draft is terrible. You'll fix it later."
The Chekhov's Gun Inventory tells you: "You're not stuck. You have tools. Use them."
Together, they transform writing from an agonizing process of getting everything right the first time into a manageable two-step process: first figure out what happens, then make it good.
So stop staring at that cursor. Open a new document called "Inventory." Give yourself permission to write badly. Plant some guns. See where they fire.
Your story is waiting on the other side of perfect.