Sunday 16 January 2011

Stuck in the Mud

Chapter Two.  Oh Chapter Two.  It's enough to make me weep.  Not the quality of the writing, but the frustration of not being able to get past it.  It's so crucial to the development of two of the characters and the state of their friendship and what impact that has on the rest of the story that i've been going round in circles trying to find the answer that will unlock the door and allow me to march confidently into Chapter Three.

I think i may have it now.  I think.  But i don't want to say anything in case i frighten it away.  It's so timid and fragile right now.

I tried a couple of techniques to get me back on track.  I tried writing down the things tht needed to happen in the chapter on individual index cards.  But i abandoned that.  I tried sitting in a quiet space and thinking about how the chapter might take shape.  But my mind wandered.  I tried not thinking about it at all, hoping a flash of inspiration would come to me out of the blue.  But then i just forgot what i was meant to be doing altogether.

In the end i simply fell back on route one.  Write something.  Write anything.  I let the character talk to one another, do stuff together, exist, and from that the chapter started to emerge, and the elements of the story that i needed to get across were in amongst all of those words.  I only had to chip away at them and sculpt them into something coherent and palatable.  It's by no means a finished piece, but i am one step closer to progressing to Chapter Three, and hopefully i can still hit my deadline.

When in doubt just write it out!

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