A Writer’s Advice: Keeping Your Story Alive Through Conversation

By Verose Céramine

Everybody knows that writing a story is hard. Of course, there are the aspects of developing a captivating tale, a fascinating world and fleshed-out, believable characters. There are writing blocks and days without motivation. There are your daily word-count goals and the glooming number of x-thousand words you aim for.

I am sure you’ve heard about a hundred different tactics to keep up with your story. Finding what works best for you and pushing through is important and will get you to your goal slowly but surely. Nevertheless, if we're being realistic, there will be a time when we can’t push through.

It doesn’t matter for what reason; sometimes you need a break. Some days you get stuck on a plot hole you can’t fill satisfyingly, got home exhausted from work or school or just got tired of your story. Sometimes, our mental health gets in the way. And all of this is totally fine. Pushing through may be admirable, but not always healthy. Pushing through everything might even be the reason you come to resent your story. You should take a break when you feel like you need it.

Now, the risk with taking a break is that you lose sight of your story. That you forget the little details you’ve never written down, don’t remember the feel of your characters or the greatest loss of all: lose the excitement for your story. This is what almost happened to me.

I’ve lost excitement for my story at one point. But then I went out with a friend, and they asked me what I was working on. I told them half-heartedly about it, never planning to go on for long. They were interested and asked me to explain further. I got into talking, and then I remembered a little detail I had planned but never got around to writing. Encouraged by my friend to go on, I delved deeper into the thoughts I had on my main character, things I considered writing about, and things I just head-canon.

And in that moment, I’ve rediscovered my spark for the life of this fictional human, for their story. For my story.

We talked for hours about my story, and I even talked about plot holes I was struggling with or conflicts I wasn’t sure how to resolve. They helped me put together the pieces that were already there to solve the problems, gave their thoughts and what they imagined would go on in the background that I didn’t even think about and even pointed out things that were just blocking my road instead of furthering the main conflict.

That conversation helped me understand a lot about my story, especially the new perspective and their thoughts on things happening alongside the main characters. It helped me develop.

But I think the most important thing I received that day was the fascination for the world I built. Something that only crossed my mind briefly, if at all, the days before now filled my thoughts again. I’ve noticed myself thinking about the characters again when a song resembles them. I daydreamed about scenes again. My spark was reborn. And my story was saved from being another lost project I would never return to.

Now, I want to add that I did not return to writing right away. I was still burnt out and not in the condition to keep typing. It took a while before I actually started writing again. But my spark survived those weeks, especially because I kept talking with a friend about all the things that excited me.

So, if I could give you just one piece of advice, it would be: Keep your story alive through conversation because your ideas are too precious to be forgotten.

Verose Céramine has been a passionate writer ever since she, well, learned how to write. While she spent her math classes writing stories back then, today she is trying her best to balance her time writing with handling stupid Excel sheets and preventing cat fur from clogging her keyboard. Even though she had always been experimental, she found her home in fantasy worlds and does enjoy a good romance from time to time.

You can find her on Instagram or TikTok @verose.ceramine