So. I have this Really Cool Project I started months ago, that I was all excited about, digging into research, writing like crazy, and then … I showed the first few chapters around. I got good critical feedback and lots of questions. I promptly corrected the issues and got back to work, a bit more slowly because now I had a lot of Questions To Answer going forward, to make sure I didn’t have to backfill over more problems. And I showed the revisions around. And got great critical feedback. And … slowed … down … to a standstill. Because now I saw So Many Flaws in the basic concept that I couldn’t just write blithely and fix the problems later. I had to get the structure right before I could get the prose in place.
So I did what any reasonable writer would do. I bundled it up, stuck it into a folder, and turned to fixing up the house and building a garden. It is spring, after all, and I have a lot to do! Daffodils are blooming, my pink blueberry bush is budding, there are birds emptying the feeder what seems like hourly. It’s just the best time in the world to be outdoors. The clay soil is begging to be amended or modified into raised beds, I have sunflower seeds sprouting, I’m hauling loads of old dead brush out of the woods into a central pile, digging ditches to allow for runoff to go to one central location instead of turning the yard into a semi permanent lake. I’ve got my hands full. Why would I need to be working on a stalled out story?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still thinking about the project. I’m making notes, and sketching out ideas in my head. I’ve just removed the guilt stress of “I ought to be writing” for right now, and turning to what’s making me the happiest on a daily basis. Which involves lots of dirt, just now.
Maybe that’ll make it into the story somehow. Maybe not. But I’m not the least bit sorry for that choice. I trust my brain to bring things back around eventually, to where I’ll once more be writing in six hour bursts and ignoring everything else around me in favor of my fictional world.
Meanwhile…. *brandishes pruners* I got WORK to do!
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