When Ideas Fail

When Ideas Fail

I have been stuck on Chapter 12 for nineteen days. It's the longest period of drought between completed chapters other than the 32 days between chapters seven and eight. That 32 day break included a complete re-write of chapter eight, but most of that time covered a period when I did no writing on the novel at all.

This current drought, though, is not from lack of trying. I think I've learned from the experience of chapter eight, and did not stop writing even at my most frustrated. I've probably written enough text for three full sized chapters, but unfortunately little of it is usable. Simply put, I've placed my intrepid troupe of adventurers into a predicament that I have not been able to extricate them from. Every attempt at a solution found it's way to a dead end. The frustrating thing is that I know exactly where I want them, and I have all the pieces I need to make it happen. I just can't make all those pieces fit.

My persistence ultimately paid off, though, and I am very happy at the way the resolution of the conflict in the storyline finally turned out. A lot of words died along the way. I thought I had a 6,000 word chapter in the bag, and enough to get a start on chapter thirteen. After the cleanup, though, I had a hard won 3,000 words and more work to do.

The troupe is on it's way again, however. Now it's back to the grind time, with hopefully fewer snags.