Home Stretch

Words of encouragement from fellow writer, Jennifer McMurrain, prompted me to dust off a fiction novel I have been writing on again, off again, for the last two and a half years. Writer's block seemed real for me. I discovered the reason; I only thought I knew the story I wanted to tell.

 I set a June1st deadline for my first draft completion.Since April 5th I have spent a minimum of five hours a day glued in front of my computer writing, cutting, re-writing and cutting some more. Before I knew it, some of these writing sessions stretched to ten and twelve hours, as my muse (see last weeks blog) whispered in my ear. (Hey, writing is cheap entertainment.)

Then, suddenly, again, it seemed like I had written myself into a corner. I was stumped for solution of how to arrive at my climatic scene of chase, terror and blood. It took me a day and a half of stewing and forcing myself to write something-- anything--- that my characters might do. I wrote a delightful scene that seemed to go nowhere toward advancing my story line. But I had fun writing it. I loved the dialogue in a situation that was totally a surprise to my characters and myself. I hated to cut it. Was there anyway I could save it---make it work? That's when I realized this was the scene that would springboard me to where I wanted to go in the first place.

Update: My first draft completion date, 6 p.m. TODAY.

Tomorrow, the really hard works starts.