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J.H. Moncrieff, Natalie Aguirre, Patsy Collins, and Chemist Ken!
Our question for this month: If you could use a wish to help you write just ONE scene/chapter of your book, which one would it be?
Just ONE wish? I’d use it to write the scene I’m stuck on right now.
Since it’s emphatically one wish, I might as well use it for the current WIP and the current scene. I could save it, of course, for the next time I get stuck. That would be sensible. But the fact that I will get stuck again is a) beyond dispute and b) impossible to predict. I might hang onto my wish and not need it for years. I might need it next week. No, I’d rather just use it the once, be grateful for the help, and then keep plugging on like I usually do when I’m wish-less.
Since we don’t get our wishes granted (at least, the Shade of Shakespeare has been ignoring my weekly petitions and I sacrificed some GOOD QUALITY sheep to his memory and I consider this VERY RUDE, I’ll be sacrificing to Jane Austen from now on, Sir, and you deserve it ) I’ll go ahead and list what I usually do when a scene is not flowing as well as I could wish:
- take a break
- mull it over in the shower
- work on something else
- consider my motives in the scene
- have I tortured my characters enough?
- maybe I should hurt them more
- like, are they in enough pain though
- try again after a short break
- try again after a longer break
- consider life, the universe, and everything
- I mean, really. What is the point of this all?
- why did I want to be an author, again?
- maybe I should move to LA and live on the beach like Matthew McConaughey
- I like the beach
- everyone likes the beach
- that’s why the beach is so damn crowded. Maybe not the beach.
- have a breakthrough just before I go to sleep
- cuss quietly under my breath as I dig out a pen and my notebook
- think my muse HATES SLEEP
- squiggle down what I hope will be readable in the morning
- try again
- finally crash through this block
Hope that helps!
