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.

Catching up time after the Holidays

I've been away so long I'm not sure if my blog remembers me.

Snow snow and more freakin' snow. It's pretty but.... I'm done. Even though I'm sure it's not. Winter's not even half over, so we can expect more. I walked daughter to school today to make sure she didn't have to plough her way across the field by herself. But thankfully some other folks had been that way first.

Ok, now why am I really here? Not to complain about the snow, coz that's been done before. No, it's time to get back into the time management with which I was doing so well before Christmas happened. I have writing to fit in, rewriting, and even--gasp!--Outsidethehome-type-work! I have to write to Fleetwood Robbins, who has yet to let me know what he thought of my first 100 pages. Hopefully he will give me an opening to submit the New Improved version. Colleen tells me, "I have some pacing issues," 24 hours AFTER I hit Send.... Oh well, it's being improved anyway, that's the main thing. 

Thanks to Melanie for the reminder to write to Fleetwood. She is needing to do the same thing.

Also did some brainstorming over the holidays (not even consciously. Sometimes simply taking a break is all I need to bring forward some new ideas). Poor Janak is in trouble now. I needed a way to make at least one of the characters suffer more after the ogre attack, and it looks like Janak is going to come away with some permanent damage, poor fellow. He will take it ill, I know, coz he's just a born complainer at the best of times. It reminds me of when my dad used to say, "Quit crying, or I'll give you something to cry about!" (Which never made sense to me.... Surely I am crying because I have something to... Grown-ups just don't GET these things). In any event, Janak needs something to bitch about, so here he goes.

And Kyer's in bigger trouble, too. I'm not sure, but I think I need to have Ronav remove her from the room for his initial "discussion" with her. That could prompt some extra nastiness. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Ok, this is getting long and I'm not really saying much. Just thinking "aloud" as it were.

Christmas and Rewrites

Spaghetti's cooking away, the toboggan hill is awaiting our arrival and all those incredibly loud rumbling noises have been identified as the train pulling in in The Polar Express, which is playing downstairs with the surround sound on. That scared the heck out of me, man. 

I want to thank everyone who so kindly sends us Christmas cards, even though we never send them. I do love receiving them, and have them all hung on a string above the pony wall in the living room. I tried to send Christmas cards once or twice but didn't make it through the project and it just became a huge dark cloud of guilt hovering over me. So I just said, NO! to doing Christmas cards. Man, I can't even seem to get the kids' school photos organised and sent out to friends and family. I suck at that sort of thing. [sigh] I love that everyone still sends me cards, though. That's very big of them.

Had a nice chat with Rob today, even though he's sick with the flu, poor fellow. Also talked to Colleen, which I do quite regularly lately, mostly because we're talking writing so much. I told her about my Stream of Consciousness writing I did t'other day. I wanted to find out what was truly going on in Kyer's mind once she gets taken by the enemy at the river. So I just wrote and wrote, occasionally checking back with the story to find out what happens next. I wrote in her dialogue, and her reactions to the things others said to her, but no narrative, just all Kyer's inner monologue. It was very interesting to discover some new things:

1) Kyer notes that Con is a coward. To finally pick her up but require eight men to do it, shows her that he's afraid of her. This knowledge keeps up her confidence for a lot longer than she might otherwise have lasted.

2) This also leads to a determination not to be broken. There are limits, of course, to how much she can take, and she's about to learn about those limits. However, during the trip to Ronav's headquarters she manages to keep her courage up.

3) Kyer compares her current situation to an event that occurred in the schoolyard where it took eight boys to beat her up. She still did them some damage AND walked home. They won the fight but they did not defeat her. Another source of courage for Kyer to draw on during this current little get-together with Con and Gyles and friends, whilst on their way to Ronav's headquarters.

And what a surprise awaits her when she gets there...

Now I need to figure out what nasty things to do to Janak. Derry, Jesqellan, Janak and Phennil are attacked by an ogre at the same time that Con & Co. are picking up Kyer, and I need Janak to incur some damage. Something that prevents them from following after Kyer, and something that royally ticks him off, so he can blame it on Kyer.

This has been the trickiest rewrite I've ever tackled. Don't know why. But I'm finally making headway. Making my characters suffer... what larks. Merry Christmas, guys.