Hard decision
on Jul30 2010Bit of a downer this week.
Oh sure, there’s all kinds of stuff that was going on, things I needed to kick-start here and there, and that’s to be expected. It happens most every day, and it’s why I get paid for being in an office for 40 hours a week. I accept that. In fact, I get some of my best work done during the in-between hour when I’m at work . . . swivel my chair away from my office computer and towards Beast, typing away merrily until 1:00 at which point I swivel back and return to work.
That’s not really the problem. I’m bummed out that I didn’t make one of my weekly goals. Worse, I had many opportunities, but chose instead to think long and hard about a problem.
Writing is hard work, but it shouldn’t be a struggle. Right now, with Black Glass, I’m struggling. I got to a part where there should be some stunning, shocking revelation, and it’s not really doing anything. I’ve gone ‘Ta-da!’ and there are crickets chirping. On top of that, I go back to the last few chapters and go over what I’ve put together, and I’m missing description, motivation, emotion, entire reasons for doing things. Characters are doing what they’re doing because that’s what they need to do in the story, not because they’ve come to a logical conclusion, or respond emotionally, or anything like that. It’s been an uphill struggle ever since I rewrote and broke out of Chapter 23 or so . . . meaning that the last six and a half chapters have been like trying to pull teeth.
75% of the way through, and I think it’s gotta stay there for a little while. If I keep going the way I am, I know I’ll end up hating it. I think it’s a good concept, and a good story, and I don’t want to kill it by forcing my way though too much of it during a bad patch, one where I’m writing what should be an explosive, tearful moment as a ho-hum collection of facts and wooden dialogue. It may not be as bad as all that . . . it may be a case of me overreacting, but when I’m like this I really need to just leave it for a bit and see.
So, Black Glass officially parked for the moment, 75% done. about the 65000 word mark. Maybe the target for this story needs to be 120,000 instead of 90,000 . . . who knows. I’ll figure it out later, once I’ve had a chance to let go a bit. Maybe I’m missing something really obvious, and I’m too close to see it.
I just hate not finishing something. Even when it’s only temporary.
In the meantime, I’ve got the Shakespeare stuff which is comparatively no-brainer work. It’ll fill in the gaps in the meantime, so at least I’m working on something. Once I’ve had the weekend (long weekend, woohoo!) to think about stuff, I might even have an additional something to work on as well. Something a little more first-person-ish.
Update: Black Glass – back-burner’d!
’nuff said.
Update: Hamlet
A little progress, but not much. Feel free to mock away.
Update: Ten Arrows
No, I’m not intentionally shelving Black Glass so I can start this one . . . I’d fully intended to finish BG before doing anything Tucat-like. However, I’m also coming to the conclusion that 3rd person storytelling is a lot more difficult for me than 1st person. Might just need to put that to the test with a trial chapter or two, now that the outline is more or less completely done.
