5 Tools To Get Unstuck When You Have A Story

You’re not stuck because you “don’t have a story.”

You’re stuck because you do have one.

It’s already living in your head. It has weight. History. A thousand tiny decisions you made about it, and a thousand more you haven’t made. You’ve told it to friends. You’ve told it to yourself in the shower. You’ve told a version of it at 1:00 a.m. that made you think, “Oh my god. That’s it.” And then, somehow, the next morning, it’s back to feeling like a box of loose wires.

This is the part nobody warns you about.

I talk a lot about getting started: sparking ideas, finding prompts, breaking the blank page curse.

But what do you do when you’re already in it?

Here are a few tools I use when a story is in-progress, half-written, half-haunting, and refusing to cooperate.

Tool #1: The Story Spine (your story’s skeleton)

When a story feels stuck, it’s usually because the storyteller is carrying the whole thing at once.

You’re holding the timeline, the jokes, the emotion, the backstory, the theme, the “what did my mom mean by that,” and the fear that your ending is either too cheesy or too bleak.

The Story Spine takes all of that and says: cool. Let’s just find the bones.

Kenn Adams’ Story Spine is a simple sequence that reveals structure and exposes gaps:

• Once upon a time…

• Every day…

• Until one day…

• Because of that…

• Because of that…

• Because of that…

• Until finally…

• Ever since then…

• And the moral of the story is…

Here’s the trick: don’t treat this like homework. Treat it like an X-ray.

When you fill this out, you discover what your story actually is (not what you wish it was). And you find the places where logic gets fuzzy, or where you’ve skipped the most interesting part because it’s uncomfortable, or where you have three “one days” competing for the same job.

If you do nothing else after reading this post, do this:  Write your story spine fast. Badly. In one sitting. No editing.

Then look at your “Because of that” chain.

That’s the engine.

That’s where most stuck stories are secretly stalled.

Tool #2: The “Because of That” test (cause-and-effect, not “and then”)

A lot of drafts are a list of events:

“And then this happened. And then this happened. And then this happened.”

That’s not a story. That’s a police report. (No offense to police reports. They have their place.)

A story is cause and effect. Decision and consequence. Action and reaction.

If you can swap your “because of that” with “and then,” your middle might be too passive.

A movie example (no spoilers): Marty Supreme (Dir. Josh Safdie, starring Timothée Chalamet) is, on the surface, a sports-comedy setup about an ambitious table tennis player making his way through a world of hustles, rivals, and temptation. 

What makes it pop is not “ping pong things happen.”

It’s that the character makes a choice… and then the universe responds.

Sometimes kindly. Sometimes brutally. Sometimes hilariously.

That escalating chain of consequences is what keeps the story unpredictable, even when the “shape” of the story feels familiar. 

So try this with your draft:

• Circle every moment where your character (or you, in a true story) makes a decision.

• After each one, write: “Because of that…” and list the consequence.

• If you can’t name a consequence, that’s your stuck point. That’s where the story is asking for clarity.

Tool #3: The “Why Ladder” (stop narrating. start revealing)

For true stories especially, we tend to report what happened:

“We went there. She said that. I did this. Then it ended.”

But what we’re actually hungry for as listeners is: why did you do that?

Not just logically. Emotionally.

Try a “why ladder” on any key moment:

• What did I do?

• Why did I do it?

• Why did that matter to me?

• What was I protecting?

• What was I hoping for?

• What was I afraid would happen if I didn’t?

• 
  

If you do this honestly, you will almost always uncover one of two things:

1. The real conflict.

2. The real ending.

Tool #4: The Three Versions (save yourself from perfection)

When a story is stuck, it’s often because you’re trying to write the final

version first.

So I force three imperfect versions:

1. The 60-second version (just the spine, no flourishes)

2. The “worst possible” version (lean into clichés, be melodramatic, be messy on purpose)

3. The version you’d tell your best friend in the car (most honest voice, least performance)

That third one is usually where your story has been hiding.

Tool #5: Change the container (tell it out loud, on purpose)

If you’re stuck on the page, get off the page.

• Voice memo it while walking.

• Tell it to a friend and ask them: “Where did you lean in?”

• Perform it to your cat. (Your cat will be supportive. Your cat is a good audience.)

  
  

Then write down only the moments where your energy changed. Those are your scenes.

A mini-challenge for today

Take the story you’re stuck on and do this in 20 minutes:

1. Write the Story Spine for it  (fast).

2. Highlight the “Because of that” chain.

3. Pick the weakest “Because of that” and do a Why Ladder on it (5 whys minimum).

4. Rewrite only that section as if you’re telling it to a friend in the car.

You are not trying to finish the story today.

You are trying to reconnect to it.

Because getting unstuck is rarely about grinding harder.

It’s about finding the place where the story is asking you to be more specific, more honest, more you.

And if you want, send me your story spine (just the nine lines). I’ll tell you where I think the electricity is.