While working on a novel, I got stuck on a scene.  It wasn’t going in the direction I wanted, my characters were two tough guys and were sounding like whiny children, and I just couldn’t get it to work.  My son, an aspiring film maker, was giving me advice, and I was a little amazed at his wisdom.  He suggested that instead of writing from the hero’s point of view, switch the pitch and write it from the villain’s point of view.  “Think like a killer and mass murderer,” he said.  Well hearing this come out of the mouth of my son was more than a little startling, but I did as he suggested.

I couldn’t tell you what a difference that made.  I began to see the action from the villain’s point of view and the entire scene fell into place.  I put myself in the villain’s mind and even indulged him with a brief monologue. The scene took off and I’d finished before I realized I’d started!  Sometimes my brain works like that, in tandem with my fingers on the keyboard until BAM it’s done.  Kind of like driving home and you don’t remember actually driving, you just pull into your driveway and go, “Hmmm, I’m home.”

I guess the moral to this story is, if you get stuck, change whose eyes you are viewing the story through and it may loosen up those trapped words eager to spew forth.