Its been a while since I posted an update, not in terms of blog time perhaps, but in real time. I’m now on chapter eleven, and its just as easy as chapter’s 1-10 were. This time when my fingers hesitated over the keyboard and I couldn’t figure it out, I just left it alone. I came back to it every day, twice a day, searched myself, and left it over and over for a week.
Today, I started typing. The solution to the problem spun out from under my fingers, nestled onto the page, and made me slap my forehead from the sheer obviousness of what I should have done. The story connected neatly to a piece I’d written earlier, and now I’ve got most of the chapter written. I have no doubt the process is going to begin all over again, with me bashing my head over a brand new part, waiting and hoping the right answer will come.
Is this normal? Is this how you other writers do it?
Sep 16, 2010 @ 13:41:05
Completely normal! I’ll spend forever trying to figure out what comes next or how to fix a problem, and eventually it will just go *bing!* and I’ll want to slap myself for not figuring it out sooner. Just don’t fret too much over it – the less you fret the sooner it will come 🙂
Sep 17, 2010 @ 11:20:35
Here’s another vote for this being normal – and not to get overly frustrated by it. The subconscious is a tricky beast. Pretend like it’s not a big deal and it may get lulled into giving you the good stuff sooner than expected!