Writer's block is back...sigh...

I had a real streak there for a couple days, but it's back again and is taking its vengeance.

I usually write in a stream of conscious sort of way, leaving exact details blank and going back again to smooth things out.

In my novel, the number and age of siblings and various families members has changed at least a dozen times as I try out different theories.  My main characters are generally set when it comes to big details, but the little side characters, set in place to emphasize a story point or provide a sounding board for the main action, change all the time.

My problem now is I know exactly where I want the story to go.  I just can't make it get there.  The end action and everything is all mapped out in my brain, but I'm stuck in "act two." The act where everything starts to go to pieces just in time for the hero/heroine to step in and do their stuff.

Act one is all about creating a picture of their world and of them.  Who they are, how they act.  Setting up the tensions to explode later.  Now I'm at the exploding part and I can't quite make it work.  grumble, grumble...

I even tried writing the end scenes first, to see if I could bridge the gaps between them, but it didn't feel right.  One of the characters needs to go through an extreme life changing experience before the action climax.  Because he hasn't done it yet, meaning I haven't written it yet, I can't seem to know just how it has affected him.

This all sounds really silly.  He's my character; I can make him do whatever I want.  But sometimes he just won't do what I want.  Or he behaves perfectly, I write three thousand words and I read it and delete it with a grimace because it is absolutely the very last thing he would conceivably do.

Then, like today, I get completely sidetracked on a minor character and write ten thousand words about them and barely get five hundred for the plot that is actually important.  Bah!

E. T.