I suppose it's utterly appropriate to begin a new book at the beginning of a new year. I managed to bang out a rough synopsis of Lady Libertine last week and send it to Darcy, Lacey, and Janice, critique partners extraordinaire. They all liked it. Yay!
Now, my most persistent Waterloo as a writer has always been the inability to stick to one story until it's actually finished. I almost inevitably get bored with the story I'm currently writing because a thousand new (and, naturally, better) ones pop into my head and demand my attention. For years, I discarded stories and started new ones almost as often as I did laundry. I've never had problems starting stories; finishing, now that's another story.
So, why am I so daunted at the prospect of writing Lady Libertine? Why do I find myself staring at the blank computer screen, writing a couple of sentences, finding the words don't take me anywhere else, deleting them, and then staring at the blank screen again?
Of course, I have no idea why. Maybe I'm just not completely ready to move on from the book I just finished, although I have to say that the synopsis fell out of my head so easily that it's hard for me to believe that's the issue. More likely, it's just that I've been writing Living in Sin for so long (it took me exactly ten months!), I'm not sure how to tackle writing anything else.
Whatever it is, it's a new and odd sort of writer's block for me. I never have trouble with new beginnings. I suppose there's a first time for everything!
The cure is simple, though: just write! It's good advice. But I was never much of a one for following good advice...
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But I was never much of a one for following good advice...
Amen to that! Just kidding. But seriously, just write will solve 9/10ths of your problems. I promise ;-)
Do any particular scenes in the novel you envision stand out in your mind? Particularly ones near the beginning? What if you try FAKING one of those scenes? Tell yourself this isn't REALLY the scene, it's just a test. Maybe that will help.
Also, not getting the flu will help :)
I actually managed to overcome the monster and write four pages of the very first scene yesterday. And I'm fairly happy with what I wrote and probably won't pitch it all in the toilet (especially not the first two pages, which Darcy and Lacey both thought were great).
Just writing IS the solution. I just think my gearing mechanism is a little out of whack after ten months on the same project (well, with a little time out for FanLit!).
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