Slogging Through the Quicksand

“A talented writer can write women, men, dogs, pigs. They can write old people, young people. Does a writer have to be insane to write the part of someone insane? I know he has to be insane to want to be a writer, but that isn't the point.” - Dirk Benedict

That quote cracked me up, so I had to use it. Good old, Dirk.

Yesterday, I managed to write more words than I have in a couple of weeks. It started out the same: dragging those words out from the quicksand of my mind (this same quicksand regularly eats memories as well -- you know the ones, where you go into another room and then can't remember why you're there... or you go to the grocery store to pick up one thing that you really need, and then forget what it is? Yeah... those memories.) when I realized I needed to do something to get past the hump.

The odd thing is that I know where I am going with this story/novel (I'm not sure if it'll make it to novel length at this point, we'll have to see), I know what I need to happen and how the characters will get there. Do you suppose that I'm bored? Typically, when I write I know point A and point Z, but not much of the in betweens. I have some ideas of potential scenes, but it's still a lot of fun to see how the characters will get to the end I have planned. No so much with this one. I took the time to plan it out quite a bit and this way of writing isn't working for me.

Yesterday, I did the prompt in our writing group. It was nearly 800 words long and part of my WIP. It was fun to write, though it certainly needs A LOT of polishing. Writing it was fresh and new. It was a scene I hadn't planned, and since it had certain parameters to meet that had nothing to do with the plot, it helped me think outside the box a little.

My writing friends probably looked at it and found nothing extraordinary about what I posted. But it was truly extraordinary to me.

As an aside, why do I cringe every time I write the word "was"? Sometimes it's necessary, isn't it?

We had lovely weather yesterday, and the snow from our big storm last week has almost melted. The daffodil greens are about two inches high and visible again. Other green growing things are beginning to show their heads. It's very exciting! I'd be out gardening already, except ... now it's "mud season". Ugh. Everything is liquid. Slop, slop.

Still, the DD appreciated the sunshine yesterday (it was in the FIFTIES! - yeah, I know... you folks down south or on the west coast, just hush and let me bask in my own relative warmth). Here's how she spent her afternoon: