That's what you're missing

At every given moment, everyone has a current goal which is what gives them what they need to move forward.

It doesn't have to be big.

I don't know if you've ever heard of the Meisner Method of acting, but this was one of the most basic examples and experiments (?) / situations we had in class.

I'm packing my back in order to get on a plane. A friend of mine comes to the door telling me his cat is missing and he needs help looking for her. My current goal is pack the bag and leave so I don't miss my flight. His is convincing me to help him find his pet.

When he gets in my way, my goal becomes to get him out of my way. When he is faced with me, not wanting the same thing he wants, he has to make the choice of continuing to persuade me or to leave and ask someone else for help or to look for the cat on his own.

Moment to moment, we have a goal and the goal could be so small as we're bored, looking for something to do, a book on a shelf caught our eye so we pick it up wanting to know more of what it's about... Each decision and move we make is in response to something we want on a big or small scale.

So if she's laying in bed and everything has been taken from her, it depends on what her personality and mental state is. Does she want to commit suicide? Does she want to know who did this to her? Does she want to get back and who did this to her?

Her goal currently is to figure out what's going on....I'm tempted to post it.

Her immediate goal will be different than her longterm goal and can change minute to minute

So there you go. You've got her immediate goal for action. Now she has to make choices on what options are currently available for her to get more information based on what's around her

Obviously, all I can do is tell you how I problem solve and write and have no idea if it will help you at all lmao

I'm also obvs a discovery writer so

I'm the opposite. I know how my universe will go, in general, and in detail in certain areas, but getting into the tiny details sometimes locks me up.

It's why I write short stories. Close, gets to the point, doesn't need fluff to get across the point.

Just some things can't be written in small chunks, or at least, not properly.

Very, very true about short stories lmao. I know a lot of people that recommend starting with short stories to get the idea of conflict, pacing, etc, down because a novel is the same thing, just on a bigger scale... but it helps

I know that vibe too. I've got some short stories, some novellas, and some novels. They all required the length they had. Some stories are shorter, some just can't be.

I FEEL YOU

I bet you're a J in Myer Brigg personalities...

No clue.

Js tend to like lists, Ps tend to be more spontaneous in execution.

I'm both?

It's not that you're either one or the other. It's a spectrum. From the way you sound above when it comes to writing, you probably lean in the J

Paranoid, but used to not knowing what's coming every ten minutes.

Cause you're having difficulty with the more spontaneous level stuff

Okay, let me explain.

Cause I also don't go in completely blind-sided lmao.

https://www.16personalities.com/

This is the test itself.

I have things come to me, almost like visions, that I can see, hear, etc. in perfect 3D surround sound.

If I had any other talent, I'd be an artist, or a director. But my only decent talent is with words.

The list vs spontaneous for planning and decision-making is a shortcut to what it means since I'm really familiar with the mindset behind the information.

But you also seem like someone who likes specifics.

Saying this too. It comes to you like in visions, you hear it, see it. That's doesn't mean anything in the J/P categories. J vs P has to do with decision making, how you work, how you plan. So if you have a project that comes to you in a vision, that's entirely separate from how you would work through the project.

A more comparable situation for J/P would be: you get this vision of this art project, whatever it is, you can see it.

Now, do you sit down to figure out all of the major details and sort of map it out before you get to work or do you just get to work and see what comes up and figure out the path as you go