One of the things that continually amazes me is how writing works best when it's a habit. Most of the time that isn't a problem--I always seem to be writing something--but I've finally had a nice long break and guess what? I'm out of practice. Synopsis writing doesn't count because that's a lot more left-brained than right, so I haven't done any new writing since I turned in my revisions July 1 for In Twilight's Shadow. I'm really feeling it now.
All I need is one scene, ten measly pages. Even at two pages a day (a mere 500 words), I should have it done in a week--easy. The damn thing is I'm struggling to get anything down on paper. Tuesday I managed 1 page. One! Most of it is the two month plus break from writing, but the other part is the year that this proposal has been sitting, waiting for me to have time to work on it again.
A year is a long time. It's time for the characters to fade into the background as other characters have clamored for my attention. Time for me to forget what I wanted to do with this scene and why I thought the original version was good (it's not!). So far, I tweaked the first 50 pages--easy. Then I tweaked and reworked portions of the synopsis. Not as easy as the first task, but not a killer either. These ten pages, though, are making me contemplate cleaning my house. Now that's bad!
So the h/h have just arrived at this party--that's the beginning of the scene. I know how it ends. The problem is everything in between. Chapter goals remain vague. I'm becoming frustrated with myself. I think I'm going to need to join my chapter's Club 100 writing loop and give myself permission to write crap. I hate that. I like to write close to finished the first time--this is why I'm such a slow writer.
Anyway, the fight continues today. Anyone have a sure-fire way on how to get my head back into a story I haven't touched for a year? Especially when I haven't done any story writing in 2.5 months?
