write oneself into a corner

present singular third person writes oneself into a corner · participle present writing oneself into a corner · participle past writed oneself into a corner · past writed oneself into a corner

1. idiomatichuman sciencesTo reach a narrative point in which the story one is writing gets stuck, leaving no good or satisfactory alternative or resolution.First known use 19th c.

   1 more example

   When Rudyard Kipling wrote the words, “That belongs to another story,” he conferred upon scribbling mankind an inestimabie blessing. How we ever got along without the accommodating little sentence, I don't know, but it has evidently come to stay. You write yourself “into a corner,” and see no way out of it except to tear up the sheet and begin over, when–Presto! “That belongs to another story” pops into your head and your awkward sentence is gracefully capped.

   1894 July 29, Art in Advertising, volume IX, number 5, page 168