by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Oh good God, do I need to wrap something up sooner rather than later. I have four good-to-great novels I’m working on and I keep spinning my wheels when it comes to the specifics.
I think, honestly, that what’s going on is a form of the dreaded writer’s block. But, in this case, it’s not that I don’t know what to write, it’s that I write all this really good copy and…then throw it out because it’s not perfect. It doesn’t fit the exact vision I have in my mind.
And this repeats over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over for months and…gulp…years. So, starting today, I’m going to do something radical — I’m not starting at the beginning anymore.
I have much of the first novel mapped out with an outline. So, I’m going to pick random chapters in the outline and write them out. I may, for the sake of some sort of overall vision, start to write from the midpoint and finish the second half of the novel to force myself to finish the novel.
That’s all I got. That’s the Hail Mary Pass move I’m going to finish this first novel so I can finish all four novels by my birthday in February. I feel so embarrassed that I’ve been talking about these novels for years now and I have nothing to show for it.
But, to be fair, some of that comes from I doubled the project on the fly because I felt it was absolutely necessary.
Anyway. At least I have some sort of strategy as to get myself out of this very annoying hole. Wish me luck.
