Progress report
Written on Friday, July 18, 2008 by haleigh
Though "frustration report" would probably be a better title than "progress." After almost a month of writing only one single, tiny, lone little paragraph, I am finally back on track. I think. I wrote 5,000 words this week, so I'm at least moving in the correct direction, if not perfectly.
I'm finding myself stymied on the suspense side of the romantic suspense plot. The romance side I have done. In fact, the suspense side has kind of faltered, and they're just spending a lot of time in bed, waiting for the bad guy to show up and cause a ruckus. Not the best plot device, but they seem to be enjoying themselves.
So I decided to make a list of all the possible things that could happen on the suspense side. Of course some of them are ridiculous, like the bad guy could blow up the apartment building where she lives and poof - that would be that. Or Cole could capture the bad guy, tie him to a chair, and torture him until he talks. Interesting, but not really going to fill 30,000 words unless I want to get really gory.
But having a list of options seems to be helping. Getting the creative juices flowing, so to speak. So let's see if I can make it to the end. I'm offically at the 2/3 mark, which is exciting. Not as exciting as Marnee finishing and winning our little contest (yay!!!), but still progress!
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Well, good luck with your suspense plot. I'm sure you'll be done soon! I would so flounder if I tried suspense. So, really, you're way more creative than I am:)
Go hal go!! :) Great job jumping back on track!
Hi Kelly! Thanks for the well-wishes. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be as creative as I thought I was when I started this :) We'll see how it ends!
Marnee - thanks! I'm excited about this story again, which is a huge improvement over last month :) Have you started revisions, or are you taking some time off?
Hi Haleigh.
Why don't you try a twist? Like something they thought was true isn't. Or maybe someone dies? hehehe, you'll get something.
I've heard some authors don't even write their scenes in order. So if you know something that you want to happen in the future you could go ahead and get it out of the way.
But I know what you mean about being stumped.
On my wip, I'm stumped too.
Hey Jessica!
Nice advice - that's exactly what I did! I reversed one tiny detail in a previous chapter - and BANG - it all fell into place. I wrote 3,000 words in four hours last night (whew!).
I'm a very non-linear writer. I actually have software that keeps me organized, just for that reason, because I used to have every scene (not chapter, scene!) saved as a separate Word document. Now I have an outline and I check off each scene as I write, and one day I'll look up and realize all my scenes have check marks and I'm done :)
Which WIP are you stumped on? If you need someone to brainstorm with, you know where I live (er, uh, reside virtually in email land :))