One of the things that continues to amaze me is how long it takes me to figure out why I'm spinning my wheels and getting nowhere. So many times, it's because I wrote something my character would not do and they've gone on strike.
Despite this being a regular occurrence, it always takes me weeks to come to the answer.
In my defense, sometimes there are other reasons, but so many times, it's the characters protesting what I had one (or both) of them do.
It happened again last month. I'm stuck. I can't understand why. I have notes, I brainstorm more notes. I should be going ahead as planned. Then finally, after about two and a half weeks, I thought, hmm, I wonder if I messed up?
So I took my notebook to lunch one day and did some thinking.
And epiphany struck. Case wouldn't say some of the things I had him saying. Maybe ten or fifteen minutes later, I realized I had Nyx also saying things she wouldn't say. Problem solved!
Well, sort of.
I went in that evening and editing the dialogue that caused the strike by my hero and heroine. It was the next day when I realized I had another place where Nyx was in deep revolt. Another edit done.
Onward. At last.
