: I think there's an assumption at the center of your question: That when you lack some crucial piece of information that is not readily available in your head or your offline files, you are
I think there's an assumption at the center of your question:
That when you lack some crucial piece of information
that is not readily available in your head or your offline files,
you are therefore stuck and cannot make progress.
I think that assumption is false and problematic.
What makes you stuck is never lack of information.
What makes you stuck is insisting
that progress is impossible without the thing you lack.
There are always ways to make progress,
because in writing,
stuckness is always local.
If you lack just the right word:
Write an almost-right word,
mark it in some way,
and make a note to find the right word later.
Your stuckness is local to that one word.
Skip to the next word.
Then keep writing.
If the sentence or paragraph or scene or chapter
depends on the details
of some critical bit of information you don't have:
Write something approximate or generic or just plain wrong,
mark it,
and make a note to fill in with the right information later.
Your stuckness is local to that one sentence or paragraph or scene or chapter.
Skip to the next one.
Then keep writing.
If the entire remainder of the story hinges on the missing information,
set that project aside.
Your stuckness is local to that one story.
Open another story.
Then keep writing.
Stuckness is always local.
Skip to the next word, the next sentence, the next scene, the next story.
Then keep writing.
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