When my boys were in elementary school, I coached teams for a organization called Odyssey of the Mind. https://www.odysseyofthemind.com/ Odyssey of the Mind teaches creative problem solving by having teams of young people from elementary school through college chose from a list of interesting problems. They present their solutions at competitions from the local to international levels. It was both fun and challenging as the other coaches and I encouraged teams of 5- to 11-year-olds to focus and work together. As adults we could only help them come to their own solutions by asking relevant questions. (Is it reasonable for a 120-pound, 11 year-old boy to fly across a gymnasium with wings attached by scotch tape?)

I don’t know how much the kids took away from the experience, but it taught me a lot. Most importantly, it taught me that there is a solution to every problem if you take the time to figure it out.

First: Clearly identify the problem. This includes having a clear idea of the goal that will be achieved by the solution.

Second: Identify the available resources. I used the scene from the movie Apollo 13 where the guys on the ground had to make a square filter fit in a round hole with the materials available to the stranded astronauts. (In fact, NASA is a supporter of Odyssey of the Mind.) OM sets an expense limit, so we repurposed a lot of items that other people would consider trash.

Third: Be willing to consider solutions that seem impossible or crazy. You may find that either those ideas are not so impossible after all, or that they lead to other ideas that will work.

Fourth: Listen to everyone, and never belittle a person who has sincere thoughts to share. You never know what will light the spark that leads to a clever solution.

Fifth: Never give up. Every problem has a solution. As Kirk says in Star Trek, “I don’t believe in the no-win scenario.” I have often applied this in real life as I faced problems that seemed insurmountable.

This idea has particular application for a writer. If there is an element essential to your narrative, find a way to make it work, even if you run up against the wall of “there’s no way.” There is a way. An author of fiction, by his or her very nature, is creative. “Create” a solution to your problem

Right now as I am writing, I need for my protagonist to find letters hidden by the previous owner of the house, some as long as 100 years ago. Those letters need to have remained undisturbed in their various spots through changes of ownership and varying degrees of maintenance and renovation, yet my heroine must be able to find them.

They must be intact and legible. I personally have family letters, some written in the late 19th century, but how have they survived? What elements of their storage allowed them to exist into the current time?

I need for some of them to be tied to locations in a garden, but untreated paper in a natural environment degrades very quickly.

Solve the problem. If necessary, change some of the narrative to create a solution that a reader will accept without question. Suspension of disbelief is one thing (Did someone say ghosts?), but the story can’t be so outrageous that the reader doesn’t remain engaged.

Surrender is not an option.