write oneself into a corner

Verb

write oneself into a corner (third-person singular simple present writes oneself into a corner, present participle writing oneself into a corner, simple past and past participle writed oneself into a corner)

1. (idiomatic) To reach a narrative point in which the story one is writing gets stuck, leaving no good or satisfactory alternative or resolution.
   • 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...1894 July, Art in Advertising, volume IX, number 5, page 168