Too Tired to Remember a Subject Line
Tuesday, March 27th, 2018 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizvogelSo, here I sit, some few chapters/15,000 words or so from the end of the novel. I know, in broad strokes, what still needs to happen: they find the bad guy's contact and interrogate him/her, the rebels do that thing I've been thinking about since I realized I had a sub-plot, the second both helps and gets in the way of the first, etc., etc.
And I've got no words.
This can mean a number of things, including that I've taken a wrong turn (don't think so, in this case), that there's some necessary element missing (quite likely), or that I'm utterly exhausted by various Life and can't brain (pretty much certain). The missing element requires brainstorming (if I don't just want to wait for it to appear, and I don't), so I've spent the afternoon playing with post-it notes, and organizing the remaining snippets I'm hoping to use, and reading plot-related articles. So far I've gotten that there's a bit I set up that will come in handy for a plot twist -- don't know what -- and there's a character I set up earlier that I meant to use again and haven't, and maybe he can provide the solution to the twist -- don't know how. And I've still got no words.
I remember something similar at about this point with the Haley novel, where I knew what happened and couldn't make it go. Maybe I should look up when that was, and see if I uncharacteristically made any journal entries that shed some light on the process.
The Oblique Strategies offering for this is "Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do".
So maybe I should just go ahead and write the MC and compatriot chasing after the contact, which seems like it'll be too easy, and see what pops in to trip them up.
After a nap or three, that is. |)
And I've got no words.
This can mean a number of things, including that I've taken a wrong turn (don't think so, in this case), that there's some necessary element missing (quite likely), or that I'm utterly exhausted by various Life and can't brain (pretty much certain). The missing element requires brainstorming (if I don't just want to wait for it to appear, and I don't), so I've spent the afternoon playing with post-it notes, and organizing the remaining snippets I'm hoping to use, and reading plot-related articles. So far I've gotten that there's a bit I set up that will come in handy for a plot twist -- don't know what -- and there's a character I set up earlier that I meant to use again and haven't, and maybe he can provide the solution to the twist -- don't know how. And I've still got no words.
I remember something similar at about this point with the Haley novel, where I knew what happened and couldn't make it go. Maybe I should look up when that was, and see if I uncharacteristically made any journal entries that shed some light on the process.
The Oblique Strategies offering for this is "Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do".
So maybe I should just go ahead and write the MC and compatriot chasing after the contact, which seems like it'll be too easy, and see what pops in to trip them up.
After a nap or three, that is. |)
