Following yesterday’s Story Dump post, as promised, here’s how to use this lump of brain refuse to get yourself back into the story.
It’s pretty simple, actually. First off, let the story dump sit a bit. At least a day, if not more. I usually find I can stay away for a day or two at most. Then, the curiosity gets me back and interested slightly. I don’t know about you, but when I write, (and especially when I let the stream of consciousness take over), I write stuff I don’t remember writing. Lotsa times, that’s the good stuff.
After it’s sat a bit, I take two highlighters (pink and purple, but that’s just my preference) and a black pen (lately it’s been a sharpie thin tip). If I’ve done my story dump on the PC, I print off a copy.
Time to face the music. I reread the SD once, all the way through. If something just jumps out at me this first time, it’s purple-highlighted. Purple (or your color of preference) to me signals “I can and want to write this scene right now”.
The second time through the SD, I use the pink and black in tandem. Either a line gets pink highlighted, meaning it has promise and/or excites me about the book (it may be a bit of knowledge I didn’t know about a character, a new ending for a scene, a story question that needs answered…something truly pertinent to the story), or lined through in black. Black is the true garbage of the SD. Nothing usable. Sometimes in an SD, just to keep writing, I’ll type a question over and over–those are black lined. So is any information I already know or have already written. If it makes no sense to my story, black line.
Following this fun step, I go back through and make a list in order of color: purple sentences/phrases/ideas
pink sentences/phrases/ideas
and use those to get me back into the story.
When you want and need to write, it can be like pulling teeth if your muse doesn’t help. Try the SD approach once and see if you don’t get moving a little bit…
I’d love to know if the SD process works for you. Leave a comment and tell us if it helps you get back into your story 
Happy Writing!
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