Much family stuff today, and I'm too tired to write but I'm gonna anyway. Here's hoping that half of a 5 Hour Energy drink will amount to 2 1/2 hours of full energy rather than five hours of half-again-as-much* energy. If not, I'll be up till three in the morning and I probably won't be able to concentrate enough to write.

Today (much driving, quite a bit of dog-walking) I was trying to think of a concrete approach to take when I sit down to this next chapter, so I can maybe cut some of the frustrating time spent backpedaling, veering off, and petering out into confusion. Just a little less of it, is all I ask--I don't think that's being greedy.

So I was thinking, Remember to go with character. Who's in this scene? Well, two people I've blithely skimmed over, trimming to suit the story. At this point I can't pretend that's not what I was doing. I told myself for a long time that I was just writing from plot so it's okay, but the fact is I've been screwing my characters over because it was the easiest thing to do.

So today I thought, okay, who are these two when I'm not pushing them around? I figured out a lot of it, and understood what they would do in the scene. But then my brain couldn't quite make the leap from understanding to any of the actual words to type when I sat down. You know why I got hung up? Because getting from the last chapter into scene in a new chapter involves a transition. Maybe just a short one--maybe even just a few lines. But it's a transition, and therefore the Grand Canyon lies gaping before me.

Well, must go see if I can make anything out of it. Probably won't get very much done--I've missed a few episodes of Bleach and want to watch it tonight--but at least I'll have tried.



*Is that the way to say that? A half added onto the whole you already have? This reminds me of a long discussion with writers friends about what a "se'ennight next" is.