A little sweet talk

[wayfaringwordhack]

Isn't all writing talk "sweet talk"?  Yeah, maybe that is a stretch, but in this case, J asking about my current WIP yielded some sweet results:  I finally know what the plot, aka driving mystery, is. 

Clarification: I had already alluded to this mystery in the opening chapters, but I thought I was sowing a seed for the next book in the series.*  However, in talking through why I was stuck on the current book, it occurred to me just why and how this mystery can be bumped to center stage now, which has the added bonus of providing a great reason why the other mystery that I was struggling to shoehorn into this volume can go into book two.

At last!  I hope the words will start coming now.** :D

What's going on in your creative sphere?  Are you blocked on anything or happily chugging along?

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* I was actually afraid I was doing too much set up and would disappoint reader expectations by not solving it in book one.

** Before I get too far along, I need to update all my "braindump" and "plot ideas" files.  If not, Future Me will curse me for the muddle.  :P 

Comments

[asakiyume]

This is why it really helps for us to have people to talk to! Writing is a solitary act, but talking over stories, or why we're stuck, can bring the solution forward when no amount of ruminating on our own will help.

I'm feeling pretty negative about my own writing, but I'm pretty dogged, so I'll just keep plugging away (slowly). Read something by a friend that I thought was breathtaking--it's like *nothing* I would ever write, which is good, because I can't be straight up envious, but even so, I was just floored and have to think about how she did it. I wonder if it's even conscious! I can see the elements that I find startling and good, but I ask myself, how did she know to put that there, and that there! How did she know not to say anything about this interaction, that just showing it would be more powerful? (I don't always believe in "show, don't tell," but in the case of her story, it really worked.

Let us be dogged together

[wayfaringwordhack]

This is why it really helps for us to have people to talk to! Writing is a solitary act, but talking over stories, or why we're stuck, can bring the solution forward when no amount of ruminating on our own will help.

I often wonder what it is about vocalizing our issues to someone else that unlocks the solution. Which as I type that makes me wonder if this is part of why therapy works for some people. Back on topic: I love the point you make about writing being solitary, but then you mention "stories" and it brings sense to the Magic of Why and How it helps to speak to someone else: Stories are meant to be told and shared.

I am sorry to hear you are feeling negative about your own writing. I actually shared a prose snippet in my other post but erased it because I felt too vulnerable about its quality. >.<

Just reading about your friend's writing is making ME envious. LOL. Those are the kinds of things I think will never find their way into my writing and the things I work so hard to put in there probably come across as naive, gauche, or too on-the-nose and banal. ;)

And yeah, "show don't tell" has its place but it is not at all an always-and-forever rule, and I defy anyone who says it is. :P

[rimturse]

Ah, it's so lovely when the pieces click into place!

[wayfaringwordhack]

It is! Now if only I could find the time and energy to sit down and get the ideas on "paper"!