Did you hear that? It’s the sound of my long-stalled rewrite getting unstuck.
I have this issue with beginnings. In the first chapter, I’m trying so hard to establish everything that I have to write it three or four (or seven or ten) times over before I get it right.
In the second chapter, I tend to stall out and lose tension. I can tell this is boring because the words flow like dried ketchup, and are about as attractive. Even I am bored. There’s too much sitting around, too much thinking, not enough character interaction. I’m well aware that locking my character in a closet by herself for hours is not interesting. But I haven’t figured out what else to do, so I just keep writing that closet.
In fact, I have spent several weeks not writing that closet.
But today I found what else to do besides the closet. That means this rewrite might actually get done sometime this century. If I can get through chapter three, and the inevitable awkward transition from story setup to full-swing action, which invariably needs to be cut to just swing all the way through.
By chapter four, we’ll be sailing smooth.
