Ready, Set, No.

I got up yesterday and got rather a shock when I checked my email and discovered it was the 1st of November. For some reason, I thought I had several more days left in October. Shows how often I have to keep track of the date.

 Feeling unprepared I sat down to write anyway, looking over the few chapters I already have on my novel Eidolon, which is what I’d previously decided to work on this month. Unfortunately, I found myself completely stumped on the story. I knew what I wanted to happen, initially at least, I just couldn’t find a way to make it work. Eventually I knew I had to put it aside until I’d figured out what needed to come next.

 Sometimes this happens, for no good reason that I can see. I have three or four novels with the first few chapters done, all of which ground to a halt, sputtered a bit, and refused to get up again. Which can be intensely frustrating when you know the basic idea is sound, but you can’t find a way to write it.

 So, no writing on November 1st. Or such a scant few words they weren’t worth counting. When I came back today, determined to make progress, I spent about thirty seconds looking at Eidolon, and knew it wasn’t going to work for me today either. Unfortunate, but it happens, I guess.

 Now, a few days ago, I was looking through my short stories, and remembered that I’d always intended to turn one of them into a novel. Obviously not having anything better to do that day, since Perfect Earth, the fourth Reality Dawn book was done and dusted, and I was in between short stories, I thought it would be fun to play around with these old characters and see if I could inject new life into them.

The answer was yes, a resounding yes, I could. Somewhat bemused, I discovered a few hours later that I’d written 6000 words just like that. And I was having fun – anyone who’s read more than a few of my blog posts will know this is requirement number one for me.

 I turned back to this new story today, thinking that working on anything at all was better than sitting frowning over an empty page for the second day in a row. It was a good decision, because I soon had another 6000 words added to the story, and only stopped then because I was getting too uncomfortable – and it was mid afternoon, I was still in my jim jams and had forgotten to eat.

 This new story has me by the short and curlies. It has a firm grip on my imagination, and not only is it fun, but it’s a challenge, and I’m always up for new challenges, extending my writerly skills. It might not be what I’d planned to work on this month, but I’m happy enough all the same. And looking forward to putting more words on the page tomorrow. After I’ve had breakfast, this time.

Filed under: Writing Journal