Doing the Hard Work

I think the last time I blogged (what a word) I was complaining about how I couldn’t get my writing on track. Frustrating. I’m happy to report that things are working again. I’m now nearing the end of Part 1 of my latest novel. I’m currently over 81,000 words so things are good. I have to admit that it was a real struggle to get things sorted out. I took several stabs at writing through it but found that, that approach wasn’t going to work. What I needed to do was define the problem. I felt I’d been writing toward this eventuality. I had large problem that needed to be solved and as I was going along the solution to that looming issue just wasn’t presenting itself. That was what was causing me so much frustration. For me I find as I write the solutions to the road blocks I put before my characters just present themselves. Like I’d known all along where I was going.

What I did to get through this frustration was to stop writing. I hate to do that. For me getting started is one of the hardest parts of this kind of work. Stopping seemed wrong but it felt like it was the only logical solution. I wasn’t getting anything worthwhile on paper anyway. So, I took a break and went back to the start of the novel and began to read it. I resisted editing everything as I read and focused on the developmental aspect of the story. As I did this it dawned on me, I’d dropped a thread and that was what was causing my current writing problem. To pick that thread back up I went back to the books I use for reference. The material I used to create the back story and histories. I read and as I did, I made lots of notes and before I knew it the solution to my dilemma presented itself. Really several elements came together and that allowed me to write the chapter that was causing me all the trouble and rework other places in the manuscripts where I had dropped this same thread. I have to tell you that writing this chapter was still hard. Some complex internal issues were happening. Lots of conflict. I wrote a draft then came back the next day and rewrote that draft getting closer. I then spent a couple more days heavily editing the chapter. I had to make a few corrections in other chapters so everything made sense. Now I think it’s done and ready for running it through a more normal editorial process. Later!

I realized I needed to get grounded in certain information. Sorry kids, I had to learn a bunch of stuff. Can’t write what you don’t know. So, the end of Part 1 of Legends of the End is in sight. Another week and I should be on to Part 2.

Part 2 won’t be nearly as long because most of the story happens in the first part. Seems normal when you are writing about the same two people when they first meet vs. the second time they come together. I say that but who knows what will happen…