A little help from my friends

Shut up and listen to the voices in your head. That is, of course, assuming that the voices are those of your characters and not something telling you do go out and do unspeakable things.

Getting stuck in a story is frightening. I was in the middle of writing a short story and I found myself with two gaping holes in it. One was explaining the basic premise. I knew what I wanted to do, but I couldn't make it work. The other was the beginning of the end. I had the very ending nailed down, as well and the driving events that lead toward it, but I couldn't tie the two together. It was driving me nuts.

Then a voice spoke up.

"Let me tell it," it said.

"You're not in the story," I replied.

"But if I was in the story, I could say all the things that you're thinking are problems, and that the readers will think are problems, so they'll know what's going on. Oh, and I can be the one who leads everyone to the ending for you. You just have to put me in."

He was right. I needed him in there. Once I added him in, everything made sense.

Sometimes, our characters are smarter than we are. Listen to them.