Started today by smoothing out the same area I've been going over and over, which is a chapter of transition, of characters moving from one place to another. Today it's finally smooth enough that as I got far into it, I realized it was time to begin another chapter. I saw that the focus was ready to switch from character movement to the characters seeing something and reacting to it.

As soon as I got into the new chapter, it flowed like butter (if butter could indeed flow). Now I'm writing a scene that is centered on an emotional point: Character sees such-and-such, realizes thus-and-so, and feels this-and-that. Suddenly I'm back into my comfort zone, and it's fun and sometimes surprising. And instead of retreading the same paragraphs over and over, I've got 1300 new words. So that feels very good. Of course, now that's nearly done so I'm back to actual plot and the characters will have to discuss plot points and achieve plot points, and I have to change setting again.

Looking back, I think I must have worked on this one transitional chapter (Chapter 2) for weeks, producing 1700 words that still don't have a proper ending. Today I have written a decent first draft of a goodly portion of Chapter 3 in one day. So...now that I've got to get back into transitional work, I can probably expect to be laboring over that for weeks, too.

Have been doing a little thinking about former GN, about a major snag that's holding me up. The snag is a turning point in the plot that makes good sense drama/story/themewise, but that doesn't feel right to me. I can't get an emotional grip on it. The idea in the back of my head now is that I need to undercut myself by removing certain aspects of the turning point before it happens. Frankly speaking, there's a sexual aspect to it, and a power aspect. If the sexual aspect is a non-issue for the reader, then I can focus on the power part of it--which is what the story's really about anyway. The sexual stuff throws the story off course. The problem is, in today's world the sexual stuff is an issue, it's a very big deal, especially in YA where writers are often expected to provide bibliotherapy and role models. In the times my story takes place, I really believe it was not an issue and was taken in stride, unfortunately. So what I'd need to do is make the reader already be taking it in stride too, before the turning point happens. I don't know if I can accomplish that. But it's something I may end up trying to do, when I pick that ms up again.