Writer's Block in 2020s

I am totally stuck as far as where to go with my story. Okay, so the story is about two women who basically blackmail each other. Natasha left the US (and her husband) to hide out in Germany because she’s wanted for embezzlement so she wants to hide out for a year until she’s no longer at the forefront of law enforcement’s minds. Natasha went to stay with a former cyber friend named Marion. Before this, they joined a mutual friend on a trip to Turkey where Marion accidentally killed someone and Natasha filmed it. So they know they have dirt on each other.

Natasha claims that if anything happens to her the video will go viral but she’s just bluffing. In exchange for her silence, Marion is letting her stay with her rent-free while Natasha takes care of the cooking and cleaning.

Marion likes to travel and the two of them have fun traveling together because she doesn’t like to travel alone.

Even though Natasha misses her husband, should I have them fall for each other? I just don’t know where to take the story from here or how I should end it. Poe gave me different suggestions. I mean, I can’t have them both fall for each other because as it said, it would blur the lines between the power/blackmail deal. So I’m going to have them get together but only one is going to be really into it. For the other, it’s basically going to be just about sex. This is the only way I can have a dynamic and exciting cliffhanger ending where one basically manages to screw the other one over in the end or at least make it look like they did.

The big question is how? I can have them travel, I can have them have deep and meaningful chats, and I can have them get it on. But how to have one use what they’ve got against the other in any meaningful way is where I’m stuck. Marion could call the American authorities but then she would have to worry that the video would go viral. Natasha could give the German police the video but then those cops would hand her over to the American cops. So this is where I’m stuck.

Last updated July 05, 2024