Red Hot Poker

Hello,

I managed to get a little writing done today. I finished chapter 19, and reworked chapter 18 of Medusa’s Daughter. It’s going slow, though I’m hoping to have a good writing day tomorrow.

One thing that helped me move forward was some fan email I got from Sweden. The person had read chapter one of Medusa’s Daughter on my website and really liked it. That gave me a kick in the pants to keep writing, thank you, Sanna.

Overall, I’ve been weak, lately, and haven’t had the focus to stay with the writing for long periods of time. It used to be easier to sit and write for several hours straight, but that was before DirecTV, TiVo, Google, and all the other distractions—like blogging, or Facebook.

I need to find the mental fortitude to just ignore all that other crap and write. I’m up to page 162 in the novel, but I wish I was much further along. I need to start setting writing goals on my days off from the hospital. I used to just plow ahead, but now I’m being more careful, so I don’t have to rewrite whole sections of the book later.

What I’m learning is that my outline was pretty good for the initial stages, but as I’m getting into the middle part it’s not as detailed as it should be. There are a lot of things that need to be changed, and I’m changing them, but then I have to sit and stew and figure out the best way to move forward. I could just write filler chapters, but I want to write chapters that really kick ass. They have to have a great hook and a big disaster at the end. Until I have those things, I just don’t want to write the damn chapter. So I don’t. I watch a movie or find some other thing to distract myself.

Also, characters keep doing things that I didn’t expect and that can be problematic. See my post titled “Off the Reservation.”

Anyway, despite my bitching it’s going okay. The process is becoming a little painful and I just have to fight through it.

I must learn to allow things to unfold and move ahead. I’m also worried about the book being long enough. I need to hit at least 80,000 words and with the outline I have now, I’m doubting I’ll hit that (I'm at 42,000 words now). I can always add stuff later, but I’d rather not have to rewrite lots of stuff to accomplish that. I guess I’ll see what happens.

There’s some insight to my twisted little brain. Writing can be fun, when it’s not a red hot poker being shoved into your ear. Wait! Maybe I need the poker to be applied to my backside to get me writing faster?

Good thing I just remembered that artists have to suffer for their art. I feel tons better. [grin and a wink]

Paul Genesse

www.paulgenesse.com