"Don't think about doing it or talk about doing it. Do it. Don't think everything you write has to be good. It can't be, so feel free to write rubbish. We all know that writing can be difficult, serious, burdensome, etc., but it is also a form of play. So enjoy yourself, and play: doodle and scribble, experiment with possibilities." ~ David Almond

I have trouble with this at times. I think everyone does. Not the "thinking/talking" part-- I think we all know I don't put a lot of stock in not-writing. And it's not that I don't feel free to write rubbish. I'm often typing something thinking, "this is so getting cut in the next draft." But I write it anyway, cause I get to cut things later if I want-- one of the perks of writing the book-- you can cut stuff you don't like.

No, what I have trouble with is letting myself "experiment with possibilities." Sounds crazy coming from a self-declared pantser, but once I write something on the page, there are times I have serious difficulties letting it go another way.

I got stuck on the book I was writing during my dropped NaNo attempt (not calling it a failure-- I got 6 1/2 chapters out of it, so that's a win, IMO). A scene I thought would be fun and flirty turned out to be Seriously Boring. But I kept poking at it, adding a few more sentences, moving the characters around, trying to find the spark that just Wasn't Happening. Finally, I realized my problem.

I needed a chapter re-boot.

I do this a lot-- I get stuck in a vortex of Suckitude and can't figure out how to get out. So I chuck it. No, not literally. I just go to the next version.

You know when you get an update for software and it says it's "iTunes 10.1" or something similar? My drafts are like that, too. I get stuck in "Chapter 7 D1.1" so I move onto "Chapter 7 D1.2"-- doesn't matter if I haven't finished that original one. It sucks, there's no saving it as-is, so NEXT!

This afternoon I re-read the opening of chapter seven and liked it up to a point-- so, "Save As" D1.2, and suddenly, I can cut off that horrid scene and start over. Fresh start, nothing there to bog me down in "Well, maybe I should keep that line" or "that little bit there could work..." Nope, all the words went bye-bye, and suddenly the Bookstore Scene could be whatever I wanted it to be again.

I wrote 1200+ words in less than an hour, cause the scene finally worked. (Note to Self: Never let characters shop again. Seriously. Did you learn nothing from the towel-shopping incident?)

And now I have a clean slate to start chapter eight, since the way I'd had the scene going would have screwed with some important things that happen later.

And, with Remi's story is back on track, I can breathe again. It's been hanging over my head for weeks, worrying me that it'd wind up another abandoned story beginning-- but I think it's going to get much farther this time. :)