Last night, I broke the fifty page mark in the manuscript for BOOK TWO! And I must say, it feels wonderful! From here, the writing goes so fast (or at least it did in the last book).
I am scared to admit that for the past month I've been stuck at forty pages, and have had a hard time writing Chapter Seven. I don't why this happens, but some chapters are more difficult than others to write. In the downtime, I have been transferring my character sketches and extra notes into Scrivener so that I have more than one copy. Going through the character sketches allowed me to get reacquainted with characters other than my main five, and I think this is why I was finally able to finish this latest chapter.
When I write, it's not as if the words magically flow from my fingertips to spin themselves into gold. Though, there are times when I read something I've written, and I think to myself: hey, this is kind of brilliant. Too often, I forget what I've written almost as quickly as the space bar is hit.
Somewhere in this trance, I have conversations with my characters, and they show me their lives. It's like a movie flashing through my head as I try to take everything in as fast as possible and write it down. So needless to say, if I don't have a good working relationship with my characters, then our conversations aren't really helpful, and I find myself having a hard time conquering that specific chapter.
My problem character (up until last night) just seemed so awkward, and I wasn't sure how to make her more comfortable around me. But I suppose she loosened up as the chapter is now done, and I exceeded the fifty page mark. I'm not sure if this writing process is cohesive with other writers out there. Maybe it's not the right way. Maybe it makes me feel crazy, but I have found a way to tell a story that I believe in, with characters who I believe in. And I'm not sure it can get much better than this.
