Sometimes, Writing Hurts

So. Tired. That’s pretty much the sum of my life, lately. This term has been an absolute shocker – but the good news is, term two is pretty much agreed to be the hardest term of the year, and it’s NEARLY OVER!

Despite all this, I have actually been managing to squeeze in some words here and there, and I’m on target to meet my usual minimum of 10k for the month.

HOWEVER.

The story, she hurts.

After writing Sanctuary and having it mostly come out so easy, I guess I’d naively assumed that that was how it was going to be from here on in: I’d sit down, ideas brimming, voice chattering, and just... write.

Yeah, no. For anyone out there who still harbours a shred of delusion that this gig is, you know, easy – give that up right now. Seriously. It’ll make things easier in the long run. Because writing is not easy, not by any stretch of the imagination.

But just because it’s difficult, doesn’t make it wrong. Sitting back and looking at what I have so far of the novel (just over 11k), it’s actually not that bad, for a first draft. There’s promise, and I know where I want to go with it, and I know that in a few chapters’ time things are going to get really, really shiny.

You know how sometimes you’re writing along, beating the words out of your brain, only to realise as you put them on the page that you’re actually – le gasp – bored? Usually, it’s a pretty good indication that you’re writing a boring scene; if you’re bored, your reader probably will be too. But not always. I’m pretty well convinced that the scenes I’m writing right now are necessary – and I’ve gotten some good feedback on the first half of what I’ve written. It’s not terrible, there’s mystery and Things At Stake – it’s just not the bit I want to be writing right now.

Which, when I thought on it, reminded me: stories like to be written differently. For me, anyway. They all have their own personalities, and Borderlands has always been a story that fought lineality. And yet, I’ve been trying to write it in order, trying to navigate a complicated timeline and convoluted structure without really knowing what I have first.

So. Back to – well, not the drawing board, but to a different approach. Which means I have to release the need to send my progress to my alpha reader, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, I guess.

On that note, off to write :)