To Each Her Own in Problem Solving

New obstacles to finishing this dang rewrite are being thrown at me. Every time I think I've solved some major problems and I nearly have the pieces together, someone gives me a new reason to pause the forward motion. (By golly this sounds like a plotline in itself!) It never feels good to hear these things, that the climax of the story isn't climactic enough, so yes, I was upset about it. I'm recovering from the death of my hard drive, and still mourning the loss of a lot of stuff due to the back-up system having failed me. I knew I'd have to rewrite some rewrites I had completed in the fall, which is bad enough, but now I have to go back and re-evaluate a whole plot concept and figure out how to fix it.

But you see, I'm a problem solver. That's one of the things I love about writing, and it's one of my strengths.

Colleen has been saying to me for months....

"You need to set Book One aside and get some distance from it. Work on Griffin."

A few weeks ago I finally said to her, "You know, when you say that I think you're telling me that Book One sucks."

She said, "I'm glad you said that, because that's not at all what I'm saying, and now we can clear this up." [Did I ever mention the importance of having writer friends you can work with closely? To help each other through these challenges? Someone you trust] We did clear it up and she stopped telling me to set this story aside.

The other day, after Colleen (yes, it was Colleen) pointed out the flaws in the climax of my story, I vented a bit to Jonathan, another wonderful writer friend whom I trust. [my partner for the 2009 3-Day Novel Contest.... You can't collaborate on a project like that with someone you don't get along with!] So I vented to Jonathan and he said...

"You should set this story aside and get some distance from it. Work on Griffin."

Errrrrrg.

I understand where he's coming from, of course. And I'm glad everybody's excited about the Griffin story. But here's the thing: I don't want to work on Griffin. My passion is still with Kyer and Valrayker right now. I've been working on this massive edit/rewrite for ages and I want to finish it. If I set it aside it needs to be my decision; it needs to be because I feel that is the best choice right now.

I've given it lots of thought, taking my gut feeling into consideration, as I always do. I've already shifted into problem solving mode, I can feel those wheels turning.... So no, this is not the time to set the story aside.

Now that I'm over being upset about it, it's time to get back to it.