I hit a road block this morning. I was in the middle of editing a scene and I rebelled. There was no finishing this scene, I wanted to take a nap, or scroll Facebook, or burn the world. You know, normal writer’s block symptoms. But here’s the thing about writer’s block. It is a typically a symptom that something is wrong. So, I took a moment and checked in with myself, then wrote in angry red letters “IS THIS SCENE EVEN NEEDED?” Then I went and took a nap and took O’Neill to the dog park.
Afterward I went to a coffee shop and outlined the five new scenes that I need to write. I’m officially in the middle, my nemesis. I knew that when I went through and “fixed” my middle a couple of months ago that it was only a stop gap measure until I had finished re-writing the beginning. And guess what? The beginning is done.*
I’m excited about a few things for the middle:
- Deepening character relationships/DRAMA
- New characters + shenanigans
- Baby dragons?
- Archiving a bunch of scenes I’ve already written
I’m also not excited about a few things:
- Re-evaluating ALL of the reasonings and motivations…
- Did I mention I have FIVE new scenes to write and I haven’t finished planning the middle yet?
- Archiving a bunch of scenes I’ve already written
The beginning is already so much stronger. So, I’m actually very excited to be digging into the middle because it needs a lot of help. But hey, writer’s block has been solved, now I need to get my butt in gear. Also, my writing plan for this week has already been shot to hell.
*Is the writing ever really done? Its done for now, until I have time to do another pass. Or you know, until I write something in the middle that needs to be foreshadowed/changes/modifies/completely erases the beginning.
