Argh! (And not the good pirate kind.)

[jpskewedthrone]

In case any of you writers out there think that once you get published writing is easy:

Yesterday, I say down to write. In the morning. As usual. And for once I actually knew what the scene was supposed to be. It was even an action scene, typically something fairly easy to get through. It's the transition scenes and set up scenes that take me forever. So I started to write, got the scene set, the characters in place and then I started the movement.

If it could be called movement. I mean, it's a raid, right? Lots of movement! Go here, do this, do that! What, there's no enemy here? WTF? What's going on? Why is my dagger not bloody?

That's how it was supposed to go. Instead, Varis slips into her fighting mode, runs down to the estate, climbs the wall, sees the few others going on the raid with her in little snatches of moonlight, sees someone in the stable. Etc, etc, etc. All sounds good, right?

Well, it sucked. It was like trying to choke down a stone that's bigger than your head. I tried to make it work for 3 hours, then called it quits because I had to go to the day job, where of course everything else sucked (students were pushing my buttons . . . or rather, slamming them with their fists in hopes that I would explode) and so the 13th of September was the suckiest, suck-suck day I've had in a long time. Massive headache after the day job. I baked to ease the tension.

Anyway today, after the day job, I sat down to write again. I ended up trashing the entire scene, threw in new characters, did the raid with a rush of guardsmen instead of a few stealth Seekers . . . and everything worked. It feels right. And it sets up a total numbf**kery for Varis in a future scene, which will be horribly fun to write. And at the same time it solidified another character's motivation in a believable way. So it does what every scene should do: advance the plot, advance character, and set up some scene in the future so you know where the hell the book is going (or at least think you do).

I think the bad day of writing will put be behind schedule on the "chapter a week" thing though.

Comments

[jeffpalmatier.livejournal.com]

students were pushing my buttons . . . or rather, slamming them with their fists in hopes that I would explode

Oh boy. You have my sympathy. I once thought about going back to college so I could teach high school. However, I decided not to since I realized how much of a handfull college-age students could be, I decided I wouldn't be able to handle even younger students.

How are you trying to handle this situation? I once had a situation where I had unruly students. I made the mistake of trying to be a hardass with them, a role that I'm horribly unqualified to be able to carry out due to my shy and retiring nature. Not to mention the fact that I think me trying to make them behave just made the situation worse. If I had it to do over again, I would have just ignored them completely and tried to concentrate on the students who did want to be there. I hope things get better for you.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, handling the situation. Generally I ignore it. A few dirty looks usually quiets them down. If it persists then I speak to them, either in front of the class or afterwards. Most of the time this works. In a few rare cases, I've had to threaten to disenroll them from the course. You can do this in college, but not high school. I've never disenrolled anyone, although now (with experience) I realize I should have done this with one of the students I had the first semester I taught at a university.

I had to say something to a few people in class today. I believe it was "You can be arrogant about this when you pass all the quizzes." I have a feeling this is going to come to haunt me though. But this is a class I'm subbing for, so hopefully the "real" professor will return.

You have to put your foot down though, otherwise they continue and try to push you further. Generally I don't have problems. And the student that seriously pushed my buttons earlier this week came and apologized to me, without me saying anything to him. So there's hope for him. We'll see if anything changes.

[authorm.livejournal.com]

You baked to ease the tension!?

When are you coming to live in my house! SERIOUSLY!!!

:)

But the new stuff sounds like immense fun. I'm going to have to start from scratch on my project, since I finally figured out a big *why.*

M

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Yes, I bake to relax. So when something seriously stresses me out: cookies. When I sold my novels and couldn't stop pacing: cookies (three books worth). Any time I need to settle down: cookies.

Doesn't help my diet at all though.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I know I need some significant rewriting of stuff earlier on, changing tone and tension. I know I need to add in a few extra scenes, to set up stuff that I'm writing now. But the book feels too . . . loose to me. I'll need to get it finished, then do some serious tightening in the rewrite.

All before the end of the year. Ugh.

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

Hey, but at least you got to totally trounce me at Trains to make up for it. :-)

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

That was fun, yes. *grin*

(Never fear fellow readers. She won the last game we played.)

?!!

[comixboy.livejournal.com]

"...trying to choke down a stone that's bigger than your head?"

"numbf**ckery?"

...you really ARE a writer now, aren't you?

Re: ?!!

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

And what is that supposed to mean? Huh?

I was stressed. I couldn't come up with any better simile.

And numbf**kery just seemed to sum up the total experience in one word the best. *grin*

Oh! That reminds me. I need to send you chapter 11. . . .