You're forty pages into your manuscript when it happens. Your protagonist walks into a room, sits down, and… nothing. You type a sentence. Delete it. Type another. Delete that too. The story that felt so alive just yesterday now sits there like a deflated balloon, and you can't figure out why.

Here's what probably happened: your scenes are connected by "and then" instead of "therefore" or "but."

This concept comes from the brilliant minds behind South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who realized that boring stories happen when events simply follow one another without consequence. When scene A leads to scene B just because that's the next thing that happens, you've lost causality—and causality is the engine that drives stories forward.

Let me show you how to use this deceptively simple rule to break through writer's block and reconnect the severed arteries of your narrative.

What "And Then" Storytelling Looks Like

Before we fix the problem, let's identify it. "And then" writing reads something like this:

Sarah went to the coffee shop. And then she ordered a latte. And then she sat down. And then her phone rang. And then she talked to her mother.

Technically, events are happening. Your character is doing things. But nothing is causing anything else. Each event exists in isolation, like beads that haven't been strung together. This is why your story feels stuck—you're not actually stuck on what happens next, you're stuck because what's already happened hasn't created momentum.

This is also why outlining sometimes fails writers. You can have a perfectly good list of plot points, but if they're connected with "and then," you're just crossing items off a shopping list, not building a living story.

The Therefore/But Transformation

Now let's apply the rule. Every scene should connect to the next scene with either therefore or but:

Sarah went to the coffee shop, but it was closed for renovations. Therefore, she went to the unfamiliar café across the street, where she accidentally picked up someone else's drink order. But when she realized the mistake, she also realized the drink had a phone number written on the cup.

See the difference? Each event creates a consequence or an obstacle that propels the story forward. The narrative has direction and momentum because one thing causes the next thing.

Parker and Stone didn't invent causality, of course—it's been the backbone of storytelling since humans first sat around fires. But their articulation of this principle gives us a practical diagnostic tool. When you're stuck, when scenes feel flat, when you don't know what comes next, you can almost always trace the problem back to a broken causal chain.

How to Apply This When You're Stuck

When you hit a wall in your story, open a blank document and write out your recent scenes using only one sentence each. Then literally insert "and then," "therefore," or "but" between them.

If you find yourself writing "and then" more than once or twice, you've found your problem. Those "and then" connections are dead links in the chain. They're not pulling their weight.

Here's what to do:

- Question the necessity of "and then" scenes. Can you cut them entirely? Sometimes the most elegant solution is deletion. If a scene doesn't create a consequence or obstacle, maybe you don't need it.

- Add complications. Take an "and then" scene and introduce a "but"—an obstacle, a twist, a complication. Your character goes to confront their boss, but the boss isn't there. Now what?

- Create consequences. If you can't add an obstacle, create a consequence that forces the next scene. Your character confronts their boss, therefore the boss gives them an impossible deadline, therefore they must now recruit help from someone they swore never to speak to again.

The Middle-of-Story Crisis

This tool is especially powerful for the notorious "muddy middle" where so many manuscripts go to die. You had momentum at the beginning because you were setting things up—introducing characters, establishing conflicts, launching the plot. But somewhere around the middle, you started writing scenes that felt necessary but don't seem to go anywhere.

That's because you've switched from causal storytelling to inventory storytelling. You're checking boxes: the character needs to learn this information, they need to go to this location, they need to meet this person. But need isn't the same as therefore or but.

Every scene in your middle should complicate the situation or push your character toward a new decision. If your character learns important information, that's not enough—what do they do with that information? What goes wrong when they try to use it? What unexpected consequence does it create?

Beyond Plot: Applying This to Character Arcs

The Therefore/But Rule isn't just for external plot mechanics—it works for internal character development too. Emotional beats need causality just as much as action beats do.

Marcus felt lonely and then he felt sad and then he felt better is as flat as any "and then" plot sequence.

But: Marcus felt lonely, therefore he reached out to an old friend, but the friend had moved on with new people, therefore Marcus realized he needed to change something fundamental about himself.

Now you're building a character arc with momentum. Each emotional beat causes the next one, creating the forward motion that makes readers care.

Making This Instinctive

At first, you'll need to consciously check your causal connections. Write them out. Test them. Revise them. But over time, this way of thinking becomes instinctive. You'll start naturally asking "what's the consequence of this?" and "what obstacle does this create?" as you write.

When you feel that familiar quicksand sensation of being stuck, you'll immediately recognize it: you've drifted into "and then" territory. And you'll know exactly how to escape.

Your Next Step

Stop reading and go look at your current work-in-progress right now. Take the last five scenes you wrote and connect them with "and then," "therefore," or "but." I'm willing to bet you'll immediately see where your story lost its momentum—and more importantly, you'll see exactly how to get it back.

The beautiful thing about the Therefore/But Rule is that it doesn't just diagnose problems—it generates solutions. Every time you replace "and then" with "but" or "therefore," you're not just fixing a connection, you're creating story. You're building cause and effect, action and reaction, the push and pull that keeps readers turning pages.

That's not just a technique for getting unstuck. That's the fundamental rhythm of storytelling itself.