CONTACT ME:
Writing from Alter-Space
  • Home
    • Free Read: An Angel in the Mirror
  • Books
    • The Nightmarist and Other Stories
    • Exodus Sequence >
      • Wired
      • Reflected
      • Walked
      • Spooked
      • Suicided
      • Crashed
      • Woken
      • Experienced
      • Caged
      • Drowned
    • Exodus Sequence 2 >
      • Shattered
    • Fleet Quintet >
      • Transference
      • Flesh for Sale
      • V. Gomenzi
      • Commences
    • A Doorway into Ultra
    • Diamonds on the Moon
    • Clarendon House Anthologies
    • Microfiction
  • Blog

The Big Reveal

2/28/2016

1 Comment

 
​The Big Reveal at the end of my novel is not going well.  Four chapters in and I’ve ground to a halt.  Keep writing, I commanded myself.  Get to the end of the first draft of this part before you start thinking about changing it – once it’s written, it can be polished a thousand times until it’s brilliant.  Even diamonds were rough and ugly once.  But despite my excellent advice, I sank into a dull, grey despair yesterday, matching the dull, grey clouds that refused to shift.  This morning I woke up in the dead hours and couldn’t get back to sleep – not the best way to start a Sunday.  But you’ve been stuck before, my daughter said to me, you’ll get out of it.  What is hard to explain is that when it doesn’t go well with one part of a novel, you feel as if the entire thing has collapsed, that it’s entirely awful, that you’ve wasted a year, that you’re only worthy of cleaning other people’s toilets.  I’ve never struggled as much with a novel as with this one, which leads me to believe it must be truly terrible.  What am I doing?  Why am I doing this?  Why am I torturing myself?  Why don’t I change my name to Pollyanna Putitabout and write porn?  It’s what sells, after all.  (Or, since initials are so popular now, how about P.A. Putitabout.)
I’m going to have to dump the four chapters and start again.  I have to change the style, the voice, the story itself, the names, the back history, the motivations and the methods of torture.  I have to change the name of God.  I have to change the world.
It really is just too much to ask.
Picture
1 Comment
Nic link
2/28/2016 02:46:59 am

Writers block is a nightmare. It's usually a sign you need a day off. Then I find that doing a 'word dump' where I just type whatever comes into my head helps. No one has to read it until you're happy with it. Keep smiling :)

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I live in Bloomsbury.
    I write.
    Sometimes it goes quite well.

    ​

    FOLLOW
    You can follow
    Diary of a
    Bloomsbury Writer
     
    on ​
    ​wordpress.com
    where it's called
    Writing from
    ​Alter-Space

    ​​

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    Categories

    All
    Commences
    Everlast
    Lent
    Life
    Life In Bloomsbury
    My Coronavirus Diary
    New Novel
    On Editing
    On Publishing
    On Writing
    Review
    Second Draft
    The Difficult Novel
    The End
    Writing Tips

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Markus Trienke, eflon, Larry Smith2010, __MaRiNa__, elminium, InvictusOU812, PaulBalfe, Rina Pitucci (Tilling 67), ANBerlin [Ondré], Sumriana Babyana, stevecadman, Darling Starlings, Saku Takakusaki, Rubén Díaz Caviedes, Ric Capucho, aquigabo!, Key Foster, Mrs Airwolfhound, my little red suitcase, Joe Le Merou, freestock.ca ♡ dare to share beauty, bluebirdsandteapots, the bridge, Flower Power girl, Sharon & Nikki McCutcheon, chakchouka, archer10 (Dennis) 85M Views, this lyre lark, Secret Pilgrim, Hunky Punk, waaanderlust, takkle K, michaelmueller410, paweesit, Rick Camacho, Gidzy, J.J. Verhoef, Honza M., HDValentin, kthypryn, Pfauenauge *back to school...on and off*, diana_robinson, indigoMood, enrico.pighetti, Maria Eklind, timsackton, docoverachiever, Sharon & Nikki McCutcheon, bjpcorp, matty_gibbon, katya_alagich