Monday 3 February 2014

I'm stuck

I didn't get much writing done last week. Between the London trip for Stories for Homes, a migraine, some paid editing and waiting for some important feedback, my mind wasn't in a good place for thinking up new stuff. This week, I'm in a better place; I can write!

Mondays are normally good writing days, because Mr Squidge is out all day and the kids have clubs after school. If I'm lucky, I can write for hours! But today, I knew I had to catch up with the housework before I could allow myself that indulgence. I finally sat down, in a very much cleaner house, at 1pm, with the aim of getting stuck in for a couple of hours before the kids come home.

By 2pm, I'd had to stop. I got stuck, rather than stuck in.

Reason being, with my current WIP, I'm trying a different approach to get the story down. It involves keeping on writing till I get to the end, no looking back, no editing - forward only. A rough outline of where I was going was all I needed, and it seemed to be paying off.

Then Ani (the main character) got bolshy and changed the storyline. Which had a knock-on effect on several other characters and the blinkin' plot. So I've had no choice but to go back and tweak bits I know now don't fit...otherwise, I'll get to the end and it'll be like spaghetti, all knotty and twisty turny.

I simply can't hold in my head all the possibilities that are arising out of where the story is at the moment! There are no chapters either, which is proving to be a distinct disadvantage at the moment. I'm not really a planner - more of a pantser - but in this case, I'm going to have to make an exception to get me back on track.

My writing time this week will therefore be spent on chapter plans and plotting, rather than writing the new scenes which are trying to break out of my head.

I am somewhat dischuffed at the prospect, but at least, once it's done, I can get writing 'properly' again...fingers crossed.

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