Ever have a clogged up sink in the bathroom? Not one that is so blocked, but a slow clog that allows water to drain slowly. Until the clog is removed, you can continue to use the sink. It can get fairly disgusting, with bits of things floating in the water. It can get tricky because if you try to use the sink two consecutive times too quickly, you might let water and all those disgusting things in it float over the edge onto counter tops or the floor.
Writing can feel like that sometimes for me. I keep writing the story. Just so you know, I tend to write stories in a strict chronological order. I do occasionally have backstory, but that comes when it is needed in the story. I write from beginning to end. I don't usually skip to writing the good parts.
I like this for a number of reasons. I get to build up the character and plot developments in what, to me, feel like logical movements. I tend to have less plot holes, especially large ones, because each stage in the story is somehow connected to the stage before it. I feel like my characters get to grow as I write, and I learn a little more each day about who my characters are, and that just seems right to me as I want my characters to grow throughout the story.
The problem is sometimes I end up with a clogged drain. The story moves very slowly. There are lots of random bits, which feel disgusting, that keep popping up and I have to deal with them until the story moves beyond them. When I can't think of what comes next I start adding things like overly elaborate descriptions of setting to keep moving. I might also add random, and what are very likely unnecessary, characters and events just to feel like the story is progressing at least a minuscule amount. However, those things can really feel like they are just clogging the story and making it move even slower. I could be stuck at a decision point, like I was with my previous post. I slept on it, woke up this morning, started my day, and then it happened. The drain unclogged.
During part of my morning routine, things just started coming to me. Answers to my questions, connections I hadn't seen before. There isn't an ending yet, but I know how to use one of the dares to explain some of my character's motivation (or lack thereof, really). I've decided Marcus is a villain, but not the villain. A guild civil war is likely to ensue. Scenes for how to use a couple other dares came to me. It's a different way for this story to go than I had planned, or towards the way I was writing it. Some of the elements or scenes I thought I might use earlier will not be. That is okay.
Sometimes, I have to face a very hard truth. I was the clog. As I kept trying to force the story to go the way I thought it should, it just wasn't flowing. I was writing only knowing the next paragraph, sentence, or sometimes even just the next word. That is when things are sluggish, and that is when it is difficult to keep going. It is so much easier to watch a movie, turn on the television, or open a book. Those stories are finished. I don't have to think about the next step. However, with moments like the clog being swept away and my mind feeling clearer. Seeing the future (of my novel) is a wondrous thing. I feel lighter and happier today just because of it. This surely must be one of the things that keeps writers writing.
Have you ever felt the unclogging of your drain?
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