Writing through the Rough Spots
Last night my goal of 5 pages came to a screeching halt. The air conditioning wasn’t working, the children weren’t sleeping, and so I moved the entire household downstairs to where it was actually cooler than 87 degrees Fahrenheit (and for those of you on the Celsius scale, I have no idea how much that really is. Probably 3.14 or 666 or something like that. :whistle:)
Anyway, while the baby screamed, I set up my laptop and glared at her.
Me: You WILL go to sleep in the “Pack and Play.”
Her: Like hell, Mom. 
Me: Knock it off. Lie down and close your eyes.
Her: (melodramatic wailing, complete with flailing arms and legs).
So I wrote in the dark for an hour 
while she kept peeking to make sure I wasn’t leaving. My son, who was on an air mattress, was fascinated by the prospect of sleeping in the living room and making faces at his sister. 
To make a long story short, they eventually fell asleep 
but I only accomplished three pages. When I got to the fourth page and my heroine was nodding and smiling for the third paragraph and I was starting to doze off, I decided that entire page had to go.
Tonight I accomplished somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 pages. I’m starting to get over the rough spot. I think sometimes you have to plunge forward and KEEP GOING even when you haven’t any idea where it’s going or WHY you are writing such weird stuff. It’s like you have to trust your subconscious writer to take you in the right direction.
Or, the other possibility is that once you’ve written the scene in all the wrong ways, the right way will suddenly emerge.
In any case, I’m proud that I did get past the bad spot and hopefully the book is staying solid. I’m on page 161. My goal for the week was to get to page 200 by Sunday, but I don’t know how realistic that will be. Depends on how much I can get done at work (tomorrow’s the last day for the kids; Friday is my last day) to free up my writing hours.
Now, off to relax. 
Michelle posted in Writing @ 9:10 pm | Viewed 719 times
MaryF Says:
Michelle, you are a goddess to get THAT much done in those circumstances! And hurray for the last day of school!
Katie Says:
kacey Says:
good for you for plunging on through the rough stuff. I can’t believe how dedicated you are to the pages with working fulltime and little kids! You go girl!
Bonnie Ferguson Says:
Tori Says:
You rock, Michelle!!!
I never could have managed under those circumstances!
Larissa Says:
Wow. I wouldn’t have done a damn thing! Congrats on what you DID get done!
Mary Says:
I don’t have children at home and there are distractions. Gee, I can’ imagine writing through all that. Good going Michelle.
Melissa Says:
No air conditioning?:confused2:
I go completely nuts when my a/c breaks. I call the repairman and he has to come RIGHT NOW before I run screaming into the street.
Yay for you on writing through the bad spot. That’s better than just avoiding it like I do!
Amy K. Says:
Good for you on plowing through, Michelle! I had flirted with the idea of joining you on your crusade this week, but um, I haven’t done A THING. I guess I’ll call it a week of vacation. I hope to get back to it tomorrow. :confused2:
Margery Scott Says:
WTG, Michelle. You’re doing awesome!!!
Jessie Ferguson Says:
OK I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post, but the one line that really grabbed me was the “trust your subconscious writer to take you in the right direction.” That is just SO true!!! I’ve been working on a novel for a little while, and hit these spots frequently, and in those moments where I abandon myself to the process, that is when magic happens. Thank you for posting this!!
Suzanne Says:
You can do it, Michelle! It IS tough writing through kids, but you can!
Michelle Says:
Thanks for the support, everybody!! :headspin:
Steph T. Says:
“Or, the other possibility is that once you’ve written the scene in all the wrong ways, the right way will suddenly emerge.”
This is what happened to me!
I’m with ya on the sleeping kids thing - mine was up till around 3am last night, merrily playing. And she was up at 6am. But I do think that writing through all of this is important - even if you end up writing stuff you end up cutting…