I can’t today. I just can’t, and I don’t even know why. People are running amok all over this chapter I’ve been working on since Tuesday, and I keep giving them the evil eye, telling them they need to sit down and behave. Then they smirk at me like an army of little Lokis and say, “We do what we want!”
So, I’m giving them all a time out until tomorrow. It makes me so grumpy because I really just want to finish this story so badly I can almost taste the bittersweet ending (even if it is like 30K away.)
I have come this far, and there is no way in hell I am giving up on this. I think I have to move ahead to the next chapter and write forward for a little while and come back. This means the next few updates on Edgelanders might take a little longer than usual. I know it’s only a first draft, but this chapter I am writing now is such a mess I wouldn’t even let my dog eat it so I could use that as an excuse not to put it up here right now.
Sorry for the vent. I’m going back into my document to try and at least write the first scene of the next chapter. I hope you’re all having better luck as creators today than I am.
You can do this. I know you can. We all have days, weeks like this. Take it easy tonight.
Take it easy. We’re writers and we’re humans not robots or computers. You’ll figure it out eventually and we’ll help you along the way. We all have our days like this.
And sometimes when you really can’t make things right, the only thing to do is to step back and away from it. Clear your head, do something else and come back to it another day.
It was a really bad day, but I’m better today. I know I’m winding down to the last stretch, and that is always a tough time with a story. Figuring out where to end it, especially if you are planning further stories, etc. And the mythology… I want it to flow, but it all feels very jumbled right now. I’ll get there. I just needed to vent last night because I’m sick and cranky these last two days.
That’s good to know. I’m glad you’re better now.
Have you tried doing a board? An illustration or cork board where you pin everything and connect it with string etc to see where you are and differentiate each races. That’s what I did with one of the stories I’m writing. I’d write a brief description of the characters, the different races, the locations and places etc. just so that I’d see them a lot clearly.
I work in Scrivener, which has boards you can set up right in the program with notecards and everything. It’s actually made life so much easier as a writer. I think a lot of it is just first draft pressure. No matter how many times I tell myself this isn’t going to be perfect, not even in the second and third drafts. There will always be something. I am going to set it aside when it’s done and start working on something else right away so it’ll seem fresh when I come back to it.
I’ll check out Scrivener. I’ve never heard of it before. Mostly I just usually refer to the notes I make in my pocket sketchpad.
Good luck. I’ll be here to support and cheer you on. *raises fan t-shirt*