The moment to moment

[Loss Stop]

An idea hit me for a science fiction novel. So I bought some writing software and began. Thus far, I am about 3000 words in. Though I am finding myself too caught up in world building and explaining the rules and concepts of my universe that there appears to be little moment to moment story telling going on.

In fact I am finding it very hard to write about whats currently going on. I have the story path, ideas, and the journey laid out, but not sure of the small scale path.

Any tips?
This is my first attempt at writing anything.
Also constantly fighting with tenses.

[Luke King]

Take a pause from writing, and work on your main character.

Answer a whole lot of questions about them. This is the list I work from: sex, age, race, physical defects, heredity, bodily care, temperament, introvert/extrovert, talents, hobbies, skills, morals, sex life, ambitions, secret wishes, secret fears, frustrations, neuroses, tastes in food/clothes, qualities, unique traits, education, family, occupation, class, political affiliations, religion, nationality, social groups, home life.

Beyond that, you can:
1. Try describing them physically, ask why they have particular objects (or simply ask why about something),
2. Give them a particular quirk (from a real person or imaginary),
3. Try describing their environment (where they live and/or work, or both. What personal things have they got there?),
4. Ask how they feel about a certain fact/thing about themselves/their lives (write a paragraph),
5. Lock an emotion inside them (describe something emotional that’s happened to you as though it happened to them),
6. Take the same feeling and give them a different cause for it,
7. Describe your character in action (doing something simple, perhaps, but doing it characteristically—making a cup of tea),
8. Describe the action again starting with I (to reveal the character’s thoughts),
9. Get the character to write a letter to us explaining/describing himself,
10. Get them to describe a stranger you have seen (or another character in the story—what do they reveal about themselves in what is chosen or ignored),
11. Put them in conversation with a stranger or another character and let it go wherever it does,
12. Write another physical description—one that is flattering and one that isn’t,
13. Write an account of a typical day for them,
14. Sketch their life history (childhood, home life, work, close relationships, family, pets, relations with neighbours).

All of this takes time, and it's a pain, but once you know the character, you will find that he/she simply writes the novel themselves.

How much you do or don't do of this sort of thing is up to you, but it is useful to ask yourself what a character wants and why they want it. The want refers to the story goal: it creates the action of the story and gives the plot direction (eg. Indiana Jones wants to find the Lost Ark).

The why they want it relates to the character's conscious motivation.

The character's need, on the other hand, is different from what he/she wants. And this relates to their unconscious motivation.

There are always two levels of the story happening at the same time. One is the outer story, the other is the inner story. (eg. Indiana Jones might need to find love.)

If the character's want doesn't drive the story, then his her need must. So if you work out (at least) what your character both wants and needs, you'll find it a lot easier to make progress, and it is also good to have tension between their wants and needs.

Hope that helps.

[Luke King]

Having now considered my above answer, and getting back to your question. I'd say as far as the moment to moment goes, if you know firstly your character's goal (what they want) it would then perhaps be helpful to see the plot as a series of stumbling blocks towards that goal.

In a murder mystery, for example, the detective has to find the murderer. His path is then a series of stumblings blocks: a second murder, a series of confusing clues, new revelations, twists and turns, all of them obfuscating him from reaching his goal.

Generally speaking, you shouldn't make it too easy for a character to have what they want. There ought to be things in his/her path, and at the end of the story, they're supposed to be changed by the journey they're gone through.

This is the way most popular fiction is written, though you can, in fact, do whatever you want.

[Loss Stop]

Much thanks for the tips. Will attempt to make it through that list. Will also come up with a "bag" of possible obstacles both large scale and small scale, and try to cycle through them when I am stuck.
I appreciate the time you took, thanks again.

[kcmay]

Some people work better when they outline. They're referred to as OPs (outline-people) as opposed to NOPs (no-outline-people). You could write a sentence per plot point, such as:

1. Joe gets into a fight with Mack, gets injured.
2. The wound festers and the doctor tries to treat it
3. Joe notices something growing in the wound.

that sort of thing. Then write each scene to hit the plot point. During revision, you can add more, take out what's not working, and so on.

Hope this helps!

[mr ploppy]

Do you need to explain how your universe works? You would be better off having things happen to people that fit in with your universe and letting the reader figure it out themself. You don't need to hit people over the head with a sledgehammer.