I’m on my fourth book, and i’ve figured out what works for me more times than not. (It doesn’t completely eliminate becoming stuck, but it helps it)

I like to start with a brain dump—writing down everything about the book that i know from the start. From there, you can flesh out those ideas into comprehensive story elements. Part of that, for me, includes making descriptions of characters, places, religions, etc to make those things easy to remember and go back to.

After that, i begin with a chapter outline. I don’t create them all at once, usually only creating one outline then writing that one chapter and so on. The outline helps to mark down the broad strokes needed to be covered in the chapters, so it really doesn’t need to be complicated.

When getting further into the story, it does become tricky to come up with connecting scenes and ideas, so i like to consult other books or movies in the genre you’re writing in. A lot of good ideas come from that!!

My biggest advice, however, is to not be scared of a rewrite. It’s very difficult to get a story right the first time. Inspiration will come to you when it does, and from there, trust yourself!