Midweek #ROW80 Check-In

Well, we’re barely started with Round 2 but things are off to a nice start.  I’ve already logged 1601 words since Monday–a bit over my daily goal of 700.  This made me particularly happy, given I took about 2 hours to go pick up my newly reupholstered living room chairs and ottomans yesterday and had only about an hour of my writing block.  I’ve done a good chunk of plotting of Act 2 for one of the potential next projects, so that’s also pretty exciting.  It’s looking more and more like that will be the one I tackle after Riven.

I’ve had two relatively successful days of meditation.  Only 5 minutes, but I didn’t fall asleep during them, and I only looked at the timer once.  That’s improvement.

Almost all of the Easter goodies are out of the house.  The fudge pie is gone.  I brought the last of the cookies up to the office on Monday.  And I brought the last of the chocolate covered strawberries this morning.  We’re down to the Cadbury eggs, and I’m just not giving those away.  But they’ll be gone by the end of this week and then we can really get with the program.

Therein is most of the good news.

And I’m not actually about to go off on a tangent of bad news.  But after yesterday morning’s super positive post about nearing the end of Riven, last night I totally hit the…well, not full on panic mode, but more the Valley of Doubt.  What if my heroine’s transition doesn’t make sense?  She’s very different from the beginning by the time she gets to the end, and I’m not sure I’ve fully supported the shift.  What if I totally missed the boat on the whole book and it doesn’t hang together like I thought?  Basically a big old ball of EEEEEEP!  Which is both normal upon hitting the final stretch and also a reaction to what happened with DOTH.  This’ll be the first thing I finished since that train wreck, and my confidence is not at its usual level of self-floatating (totally a word–or should be) arrogance.

But I did figure out what isn’t working for me, what I KNOW isn’t going to fly.  My ending should be fine.  It’s the only possible solution, so I’ll keep pushing forward to get there.  What’s not working is the stretch between the end of the Black Moment and the SPP.  I’ve got my hero doing something that he…totally wouldn’t do.  Because I needed him to do it.  It’s out of character and totally unjustified as I have it now (as evidenced by the fact that the scene in question is a total mess with big chunks missing).  My gut knew it, and I chose to ignore it because I NEEEEEDED him to do it to show what I need to show.  But no.  So that’s on my list of things to ponder–what other ways can I reveal that detail that still plays.

In the realm of random, scientists have discovered the gate to hell.  It’s pretty cool.  Totally a story there.  No.  No.  BACK PLOT BUNNY…

6 thoughts on “Midweek #ROW80 Check-In

  1. Concerning the thing your hero does, which he totally wouldn’t do. Why is it that we see things that happen in real life, but don’t believe them in a story? Whatever it is that your hero wouldn’t do, it’s probably something someone in real life would think someone wouldn’t do…and they did. People can be unpredictable sometimes, so why is it such a stretch when writing a book? I’m not sure what the answer to that is. But it does seem that readers get bent out of shape over things that really do happen in real life. I guess it’s because people want better things to happen in a story so they can escape real life for awhile.

    Btw, how did your furniture look with the new covers?

    1. Well in real life people make assumptions about other people, attributing their behavior to all kinds of things based on personal experience etc. But in fiction, we get a real back seat view to their motivations and WHY they do things, so it actually HAS to make logical sense for a character–we have to sufficiently support/explain/motivate their actions because the reader SEES it.

      The chairs look really nice. I picked this fabric with a nice Chinese red, so they provide a nice pop of color to my otherwise pretty neutral living room. I”m really happy to have them back!

  2. Those self-doubts can be killer. Good luck with working through those issues. I’ve had some of them on one of my stories, though sort in reverse. I have a clear ending for the primary MC, but I have to work out how to get her there. I’ve written the first few chapters so many times trying to get the right beginning handle on her and the first person she meets after the initial catastrophe. Big ugg. Hope you get your big uggs worked out.

  3. Glad to hear about the good progress … sorry about the confidence-blues. I’ve been (am?) there myself. Sometimes all you can do is just keep writing, no matter what. And you know what? After this book is done – and it will work out, you’ll figure out that perfect link-scene, just you watch – after this book, you’ll go on and write an even better one. The more we write, the better we can get. 🙂 Have a great week.

  4. I know precisely the situation you’re talking about, where a character is trucking along, then misses a turn. And while it’s vexing, this is sooo healthy. This speaks volumes about you as a writer. A lot of people can luck into a solid story. Plenty can sense when something’s wrong. But few are the folks who can isolate an issue, see the story anew, and rewrite the wrongs.

    Outlines are awesome, but in truth, we learn the tale in telling. Every time. That’s what you’ve done here.

    Finally, I wouldn’t pay much mind to the crisis of confidence. Yup, bits of your story may be broken. So? You have the eye to spot the issues, the instincts to fix ’em, and the tools to do the job. So rip that sucker apart and rebuild, as needed.

    Go get ’em, Kate.

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