I am trying to decide which writing impasse I hate more: the one where I have no freaking clue what should happen next and the blank page mocks me with its emptiness, or the one where I have the characters in place, I know the subject of their interaction, I know the point of their interaction and what it contributes to the overall story, I know where they start and where they end up... and they sit there like lifeless mannequins and refuse to play the scene.
...
The first one is worse, of course, because flailing with no direction is always the worst possible situation, but right at the moment, the second scenario is making a very creditable attempt to drive me crazy.
...
Probably I wrote a wrong sentence or two a couple paragraphs earlier and things will fall back into place once I find the wrong turn and yank it out, but until then, ARGH.
The subject line is the absolute honest truth. It doesn't negate the equally valid truth that I also love storytelling from the bottom of my heart and could never give it up, but oh my god, right now the hatred is winning.
ETA: Ha, found the problem. It turned out to be a single word, oddly enough, but one that shifted the connotations of a sentence in an unfortunate direction. Now I just need to make the characters stop talking and wind the scene down. Then on to the next one!
...
The first one is worse, of course, because flailing with no direction is always the worst possible situation, but right at the moment, the second scenario is making a very creditable attempt to drive me crazy.
...
Probably I wrote a wrong sentence or two a couple paragraphs earlier and things will fall back into place once I find the wrong turn and yank it out, but until then, ARGH.
The subject line is the absolute honest truth. It doesn't negate the equally valid truth that I also love storytelling from the bottom of my heart and could never give it up, but oh my god, right now the hatred is winning.
ETA: Ha, found the problem. It turned out to be a single word, oddly enough, but one that shifted the connotations of a sentence in an unfortunate direction. Now I just need to make the characters stop talking and wind the scene down. Then on to the next one!