Writing, Process Of

So, in a previous post, I noted that I had completed nearly 50,000 words 50 days. Last night was the first time I wrote anything (in fiction) since that post on February 25, nearly two weeks ago. Partially my lack of production was due to the mental challenges and time-loss of Ye Olde Daye Jobbe. But the real problem was that my mental movie was missing the third reel.

See, I was able to crank out the wordage because I had, well, a mental movie of Pamela's Ghost. So what I was doing was taking the movie and putting it into a format understandable and entertaining to somebody who hadn't seen that movie. The problem was, my movie ended with the alien surprise attack having failed. After that, I had a vague idea (epic space battle) but absolutely no detail. Like I said, no third reel, and only a few frames of the fourth reel.

This unplanned break period, then, has been generating those missing reels. Alas, these reels still aren't complete - I have ideas about where to go but no complete reel. Last night's session involved re-jiggering the text to get one of my POV characters in a position to view the action, and I have ideas coalescing about what that action will involve, but no movie. The action will be more multi-track (the first half of the book was relentlessly linear) which, added to my lack of mental detail, means writing will be slower.

But it will resume, starting now.