Saturday, November 20, 2010

Writer’s block couldn’t have picked a better time to rear its ugly head

So I’m a week behind on my self-imposed deadline.  Now, I know with writing it’s a creative process and it shouldn’t be rushed, but I’m an overachiever with a serious need for deadlines (for some reason, I perform much better up against one, hence why I imposed one) and I have to get it done.  Its one of the many anal, O.C.D. type traits I possess.

The reason for being behind?  Stress-partly because of said deadline and partly because I have so much going on in my life.  And what does stress lead to?  Writers block.  I battled the first case of it earlier this month with a night of wine, junk food and TV.  I’m now on the last re-write task before a final read through and submitting my manuscript to be critiqued and here it is again-writers block. 

This time it’s different.  I have to decide how to rewrite a scene and I’m torn between two scenarios.  I’ve played out both in my mind, and both would fit in like the last puzzle piece.  I can’t decide how to pick. 

If I choose scene A, I have to give a character a bigger part in the story, which won’t necessarily be hard, just tedious.  He’ll also add another dimension to the plot, possibly deepening it.  Question is do I need another dimension?  I don’t think I do. 

If I choose scene B, then the same character may not be relevant enough in the story, so I would most likely need to take him out all together, which means I’d have to re-edit areas he’s in and say goodbye to a character I’ve grown to like in my imagination.  I could leave him for a sequel, but I don’t know if he’d make sense anywhere else.  Taking him out also takes away from another character, posing another problem since I’d have to rewrite some of that person’s back story.

Some of you may think “then go with scene A, which sounds like what you want to do K.T.”, but it’s not that easy.  Weaving him in may add too much to the story and instead of helping drive it forward, it may weigh it down.  And after writing all this, I am leaning away from scene B because rewriting another character’s back story and how it’s relevant to my protagonist is going to be much more difficult than I care to attempt.

Maybe I need to come up with a scene C…          

On a related note, I’ve shed 8500 words on my manuscripts diet just on a quick glance.  I plan to fully read through it after I get over this wall.  With any luck, I’ll shed another 8500-11000 words.

I have the house to myself for once, so I'm now going to grapple with my decision.  Wish me luck!

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