The family went out to see the new movie Enchanted yesterday, but due to the fact that no babysitters were available, somebody had to stay back with Susannah, who was napping. I was the obvious choice, since I had writing to do, and so I reluctantly let them go. (We get to see so few movies these days!)
I got a bit done, about a thousand words, but not what I was hoping for. I continue to struggle with where this is all going, and being overwhelmed with what still must come. Timeline issues are a mess, and I'm trying to tell myself that I can write through them and figure all that stuff out later — that nothing is stopping me from at least getting down the scenes that I know are going to happen. But my head won't let me; I seem to have to know when these things happen in time.
The other major issue: one of the major climaxes of the book is when my main character takes his girlfriend and her daughter back to the place he's been avoiding for the last two decades of his life, for a sort of confrontation of his past. The problem is that I can't seem to figure out what it is that is compelling enough to make him go back there. Thinking about this issue has become a mini-obsession with me, but the more I think about it, the more blocked I feel.
Write what you do know, I think. But I'm struggling with knowing anything at this point.
God dammit! This is a good idea! I know this can be done! Sometimes I just wonder if I'm the one to do it. For all the writing I've done in my life, I suddenly feel remarkably inexperienced. Sometimes the book feels like a huge tease. Normally I don't mind being teased — it can be fun and inspiring. But this doesn't feel like the good tease. This is the jigsaw puzzle on a deadline, with pieces missing. I could spend the rest of the month looking for those pieces . . . or I could just put together what I know, hope it adds up to 50,000 words (pieces), and then hope that I can "fix it in the mix."
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