Writing advice: Filling in the middle parts.

Okay, I asked for various input on writing suggestions, and this is the one that stuck in my head, so I'm going to ramble for a bit and see what happens. Exciting! Hopefully knowledge happens, but I make no promises.

So, you've got a story idea, a couple characters, a few story beats that you'd like to hit, and now you want to glue them all together. Great! But also intimidating. What do you do next? (Cry, probably.)

The first thing I like to do is write down what I know. Even if it doesn't seem like much, and it certainly doesn't add up to a story, just write it down. I'm going to take an example from someone who was struggling on Twitter yesterday, because it's fresh in my mind. Apologies for like, blatantly stealing this and being too lazy to look up who tweeted it. 

Story bare bones: two monsters, they meet and fall in love, there's a cure they discover (but how?) that could fix them, something happens, they run off together and remain monsters.

There's something there! It could be really fun! But the first challenge is setting up this story so there's real conflict. Even Seinfeld, the original show about nothing, had conflicts. Your conflict can be external (man vs nature, man against man, man against society) or internal (man vs self). Or both! You can definitely have multiple conflicts, and if they conflict, all the better. More drama. And the reason you need to set up a conflict first, even just a basic one, is because you otherwise won't have anything to string together the pieces of your story. A good conflict will drive almost everything that happens in your story.

Here's how I'd add conflict to this story: The monsters fall in love, but one of them really wants to cure their monsterhood. The other monster really likes being a monster! (Perhaps Monster A was turned into a monster, and Monster B was born that way.) So right away, we have a solid conflict: I love you, but I don't love myself. 

Next, find ways to SHOW your conflict developing. Brainstorm various scenarios, they don't have to connect yet:

-Monster A looks in the mirror. Maybe now they're something kind of gross, like Frankenstein's monster. Monster A pats at their off-colored skin, pokes at the stitches across their forehead. Monster A imagines what their former self looked like as a human

-Monster B shows how much they love Monster A. Maybe they cook breakfast for A. Maybe B cuddles A on the couch for a movie. A is clearly happy with B, even if they're not happy with themselves. 

-A part of Monster A falls off, Monster B sews it back on for them. Monster A is worried that Monster B thinks they're gross or creepy, but Monster B just thinks they're charming. 

-Monster B is starting to recognize how much Monster A hates being a monster. B comes up and hugs A while they're poking at various stitches in the mirror and reassures them, but can tell that A still isn't convinced. 

-Monster B clearly loves A, and thus wants to find a solution. We already have the idea from earlier of a potion that would fix a monster and make them human again, so Monster B does some research and comes across the idea of this potion. (This is a spot for worldbuilding: what kind of research does Monster B have available? Would they go to friends? Family? Books? Internet? Maybe they hang out with a friend who mentions it in passing. Lots of possibilities, lots of opportunities to get Monster B interacting with other characters as well, and even explaining their own feelings about the situation.)  Monster B leaves Monster A for a few days, but won't explain why. (Added conflict!) Monster B doesn't want Monster A to be disappointed if they can't find the potion, but Monster A is worried that Monster B needs space and won't tell them so, or that they're making Monster B upset for some reason.

-Monster B returns with the potion. Here's where you'd have to do some worldbuilding to determine how one gets this potion! Does this world have the internet to just order a potion? Does B know some witches who could brew one up? You have a lot of options, and the only thing that would make your choice correct is what makes sense in the world you've set up yourself.

-Monster A is touched. This is everything they've ever hoped for and they can't believe Monster B would do this for them! But Monster B looks sad. Monster A can tell there's something wrong. B admits that if A is human, they're worried A won't love them anymore. But if A won't love B as a monster, B will turn human too so they can stay together. Monster A takes a moment and just looks at Monster B. They realize how much they really love Monster B. You could add a montage here about all the monster things that Monster B does that Monster A really enjoys! Maybe B has claws for awesome back scratches or something. Or soft fur that's fun to pet.

-Monster A sets the potion aside and thanks Monster B for loving them so much to go retrieve it. Monster A decides that if B loves them so much, weird limbs falling off and all, then Monster A is going to stay that way. Because they love B the way they are too, and being a monster is what brought B into their life in the first place, so it can't be that bad.

Anyway, I wrote that in 20 minutes from a few scraps of a story idea. If you're staring at your story wondering why it just. won't. go., the best option is to look at your characters and look at your conflict. Are your characters TOO perfect? Or even TOO conflicted? A character who is a total mess might not serve your story either, because is it going to be realistic that they'll be able to see through all their issues in order to change. Where does your character start and who do you want them to be by the end? Is your conflict really a conflict? Is it something that's legitimately holding your character back, or is it just an artificial road block that you've set up and could easily be overcome with a little conversation or a random story device? 

So now you've got a string of things that will happen. How do you fill in the middle parts? How do you go from scene to scene to scene to scene? Uh, logically is best! What I wrote above would probably not have much filler if it were just a short story. You would want to keep your scenes succinct and to the point or you'd have a story that could go on for 450+ pages (oops). The best way to think of what happens in your story isn't A, B, C, and D happen, but rather: A happened and it was a BIG deal. And because A happened, B naturally occurred. And because B happened, C was a consequence. And because C happened, we resolved it by D. 

A scene in a story tells its own story: if you have two characters sitting on a couch, they can be talking about the conflict of the story in one way or another. If they're at the grocery story, you can demonstrate conflict in a different way. Every scene is there to help move the conflict along, so you just follow with what does your story need at any given moment? 

If we need to find a potion that fixes a monster, then let's set up a scenario to find that potion:

-Monster A is being a mopey asshole about being a monster. Maybe they're having dinner in the kitchen. Monster B is getting a little frustrated because, as they've said before, all they've ever been is a monster, and they LIKE being a monster, and it hurts them to see A hate themselves like this. Monster B reaches across the table and takes A's hands and gently reassures them, but says hey, I don't want to argue about this. I'm not mad at you, but I need to go cool off a bit, so I'm going to the bar where my friend works that's down the street and I'll be back in an hour. (I feel like Monster A would need a shit load of reassurance, their self esteem blows.)

-Monster B heads out. We needed them to leave the house, so we set up a scenario to get them out of the house (while reinforcing the conflict!). B goes to their friend's bar around the corner and laments this whole monster issue to the friend. The friend tells B that they know a guy who knows a guy, and that guy knows some witches who make a potion that will turn legit anyone human. (Another thought: the potion turns you into what you most want to be, which could be a cool conflict if A took the potion and turned human, but B took the potion and stayed a monster...and then A took the potion again to turn back into a monster to be with B. Idk.)

-Anyway, B shoots a text to A saying they'll be home a bit later, don't worry. A worries anyway because of course. B watches as his friend calls a guy who calls a guy who calls a witch. Friend hands B a piece of paper with an address on it and B runs off into the night.

See how easy it is to come up with the middle pieces when you have a clear goal and a clear conflict? What would these characters NATURALLY do in any instance? What would they WANT to do? How would who they are as a person impact the choices they make? How would their personalities effect how they feel about other characters' choices? 

A story isn't a series of events, it's more like an entertaining thesis. "The thesis of this paper is that Monster A and Monster B really love each other, and that love will be able to overcome how much Monster A is internally conflicted about being a monster." Everything you write should somehow prove something in that thesis statement, either that these two monsters really love each other, or that Monster A really hates being a monster, or that Monster B really loves being a monster, or that Monster B's love for A is enough to help them see that there's nothing wrong with them and they're deserving of that love. 

So, just go forth and support your thesis. If you're finding that you can't do that, or that whatever you're coming up with blows...look at the very CORE of your story. Pare it all down. Write down the very plain, clear conflict or conflicts that your story revolves around. Take off all the shiny parts, take off all the world building and the shit you think would be REALLY cool. Humans (and monsters I guess) aren't that complicated. Our core emotions are pretty straightforward. You have more than a few yourself, I'd imagine, and they can be boiled down into very simple components whether you like that or not. 

(Even myself! Why do I have anxiety? Because the world is chaos. Why do I hate chaos? Because I like to have control over my environment and the world around me. Why do I need control? Because my life has been chaotic forever and my coping mechanism is wrangling everything into some semblance of order. It's straight forward, and just a regular part of the human condition, but it's definitely more core conflict with being a person.)

Let your characters be human. Let them be flawed in real, normal, understandable, universal ways. Let them be traumatized but don't let it overpower your story. Let them grow (or if you're getting dark, let them degrade into hell...that can be fun sometimes). Let them change. Let them be fun, let them be annoying, let them be relatable or completely off-putting. But they have to be human and real or the puzzle pieces of your story are going to feel like you're jamming side pieces into the middle of the jigsaw puzzle. I promise that if you peel back the fluff, and strengthen the core of your story and your characters and your conflict, you'll have no problem figuring out what logically should come next to achieve what you want your story to do in the end. Keep it simple, stupid.