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Island Life, Word Birds & Process
The mist took a while to lift giving an authentic island feel to the morning. A scattering of birds on the still stark branches decorated the birch tree. This leaves the process – & where I vaguely falter…
At last Thursday’s writing group with Janey I talked about being run aground in the third draft of Book 3 (nicknamed RiverBook) at around 15k. Due to Vital Plot Changes the rest is now an unholy muddle. I confessed to a wobble: knowing where you need to be is one thing, how to get there is another.
Talking through our various wobbles (& the glimmers of what’s needed to smooth them) is the foundation of our writing group. I never leave a session without feeling encouraged. There were places I needed to be over the weekend but in the gaps I thought hard about why my story was stuck in the shallows. Even though, technically, it still is, as I began reading yesterday, I realised how daft it is to be afraid of my own writing. One of the glimmers has become ‘An Interesting Aspect’ & I’m running with it.
I’m wearing Wellies which may mean more miring. And yes, alliteration is a favourite writing thing.
If it was good enough for Shakespeare…
Making it up as I go along 
Another interesting post, Carol. I love the way you analyse your drafts. I look forward to finding out about the ‘interesting aspect’ that you’re running with. I’m loving the alliteration! Good luck with sorting out your wobbles. 🙂
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Thank you! xXx
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I said something similar to my writing group just yesterday–writer’s block is fear. Fear you “can’t.” Get the plot right, learn the lessons still eluding you, see your own flaws, or fear that you will see them and become overwhelmed. Whatever it is, that block is fear. Like all bogeybeasts, you have to look it in the face, call out its name, and watch it dissipate into the ether–cackling madly, of course. 🙂
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With respect, you assume I’m talking about writer’s block. I’m not. (And I’m not afraid either – Lol! I said: “I realised how daft it is to be afraid of my own writing.”) I don’t acknowledge writer’s ‘block’ as even being a thing frankly. Writer’s block is an excuse people who haven’t got anything particularly interesting to say use, who don’t take writing seriously & can’t be bothered to turn up. It’s a job & sometimes it’s hard work.
“Writer’s block…a lot of howling nonsense would be avoided if, in every sentence containing the word WRITER, that word was taken out and the word PLUMBER substituted; and the result examined for the sense it makes. Do plumbers get plumber’s block? What would you think of a plumber who used that as an excuse not to do any work that day?” Philip Pullman
“There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write.” Terry Pratchett
It isn’t the writing that’s the problem, I know exactly what I want to say. It’s working out the shape of the story which is entirely different – where the words I have in my head (billions) fit enabling me to get from ‘here’ to ‘there’ without a muddle.
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No, no! Sorry. I didn’t mean YOU have writer’s block. I think we had that conversation back in the beforetimes (livejournal!) and we agree. Writer’s block doesn’t exist the way most use it. Anyway, I was referencing the fear part of your post, but used the example I made about fear when talking writer’s block with my group. Sometimes, the jumble in my head makes it clearly onto the page, and other times, it doesn’t.
You’d have gone mad, listening to one of the TED talks we watched. I spent the whole time shaking my head saying, “nope, nope, nope. Doesn’t work that way,” silently, of course. And then there was the other one that I said, YES! Exactly this!” Very interesting, those TED talks.
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