Writing has become such a major part of my life. I realized recently that, while my blog highlights my writing, it doesn't talk about the joys and pains of this major part of my life. For the next few months, I would like to share some ideas about writing and hear what you have to say. I'm also inviting any writer in the audience to join the conversation. Let's talk in the comment section. If you'd like to guest post on Writer Wednesday, shoot me an email and let me know.
For the next few weeks, thought we could talk about the places and situations where we get stuck. You know those moments when the writing grinds to a halt. Everything we write is like spins us deeper into the muck of our own minds. We're stuck.
Where to do you get stuck in your writing? What do you do to get out of it?
While there are a few places I get stuck, one place I always get stuck is right on the edge of a character getting injured, hurt or struggling. If you've read my fiction, you know that my characters suffer great injury, suffer, and struggle. Even when I know the story is going in that direction, I will stop writing, come up with excuses, and basically spin my wheels for a long, long time before I sick down and force myself to make the character suffer.
For example, I knew that Honey Lipson, from Denver Cereal, would have to fight her sister. I knew that the moment she appeared in the story. I also knew that she would end up paralyzed. In fact, I did a variety of research around how people get paralyzed and how paralyzed people live.
When the time came, I couldn't bring myself to write the scene where she becomes paralyzed. I wrote everything else, but that scene. My mind was already caught up in grieving her injuries, her loss, long before they happened on the page.
Forced by the weekly deadline, I pushed myself back into the chair to write the scene. As the author, I must believe the character can overcome whatever happens to them - even when I want so badly for it not to happen.
What would you have done? How would you have overcome this stuck place?
Proposed schedule for Writer's Wednesday:
- Stuck places ( November)
- Seeking inspiration (December)
- Finding time (January)
- Getting it out there (February)
- Who's your reader (March)
Or something like that - let's not get too tied down here.
-----
