I've been stuck. For two weeks, I've been trying to finish editing Chapter 6 of my current WIP. I had the first part done, but the second part wasn't ringing true. I questioned the flow, the tone, the voice, the importance of the scene, but today I muscled through.
I said to myself, "Self, if you don't try, it will never get done."
So I just did it. It might not be perfect and I might change a few things tomorrow, but for the most part I think it's pretty good.
Now I have Chapter 7. When I wrote my draft, I didn't write Chapter 7. I wrote write dragon scene here and moved on. Today I decided that I couldn't procrastinate anymore, so I wrote half of it and although it will probably change, at least I have the words down, because you can't work with anything if you don't have anything to work with.
Make sense.
My advice for the weekend. If your stuck, flex your brain and try to muscle through.
15 comments:
Great advice! Sometimes the only way out is through.
You could be me. I was stuck at chapter 6 for weeks, trying to revise. I finally got through it, after stepping back and looking at the big picture for my book. Now I'm stuck at chapter 9. Sigh. Maybe I'll take your advice and just skip this part and come back.
That is very wise advice that I need to take right now as I'm sorta stuck on a story idea. I just need to park it in front of my computer and muscle my way through.
Thanks Patti!
Fitting advice for me today. Thanks for the inspiration:)
I have a few things I need to muscle through--like cleaning my house.
Great advice! I'm with lotusgirl on the muscling my way through cleaning my house.
I hate being stuck. I wrote my main character into a necessary situation, but now I can't get her out. And now I'm wondering if I need to start all over or if she's so stuck because I need to move to another project.
Great post!
And when you are done with your dragon scene, you can send it to me.
Great advice. I doing that right now myself.
Bwahaha!! "Write dragon scene here." I love it!! I would say I NEVER do that... I push on, if only staring at the screen for six days until something comes to me... except I found TWO of those when I went through my first draft this summer!
You know what? You're right... it's much easier to revise something that already on the page!
Congrats on pushing through and getting it written! I bet it's fabulous!
Happy weekend!
As you know from how long it took me to get chapters to you, I get stuck on scenes often. I try to muscle through, but sometimes, I just have to settle for so-so and move of and come back to it later.
My muscles need a bit of nourishment to heal right now but the time will come to slay the dragon so to speak. Congrats on the your work thus far!
Great advice! Congratulations on your progress!
I agree, sometimes muscling through means making a note to "write ... here" and sometimes it means writing the darned thing.
Love that advice Patti. I had a chapter like that in my book. Two actually. 15 and 16. It was MURDER. I took out the entire chapters. They just didn't ring true. But I waited until I had added most of the words then I deleted the old junk. Why do I write that stuff. Why does it sound great until someone tells me, :WHAT THE HECK IS THIS ALL ABOUT?" :)
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