Stuckness

Posted: June 23rd, 2009 under the writing life.
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I was trotting briskly along yesterday,  with Book indicating it meant to break to a canter any moment now.  The moment came,  action took off…and then, at an about-to-be-really-exciting moment, it bucked off the writer and disappeared.

It then offered a competing scenario, with a different and equally interesting possibility, and disappeared again.

So, I said to it, which path is the real one?   Book chuckled evilly and refused to answer.

I don’t have time for this, I said.

Fine, Book said, and turned its back.   You think you’re so smart, try it all by yourself.

Telling Book that I’m not smart, I’m creative, and it’s my creation and had better suck it up and write itself was probably not the smartest thought I ever hatched in Book’s presence.  In tussles between Writer and Book,  Book usually comes out on top.  But Book enjoys tussling, so annoying Book sometimes works where nothing else will.    Other Books have been threatened with the addition of dancing dolphins wearing pink tutus or “adorable” little girl characters who lisp or text in limerick form.

The current tangle involves a minor character who either is, or is not, a bad guy.  If a bad guy, he murdered a good guy and is wearing the good-guy’s uniform.   If a good guy, he’s…well, he’s a good guy.  But it bears on the message carried by this person (legitimate?  faked?  legitimate despite being carried by a bad guy?  faked despite being carried by a good guy?  I didn’t expect a messenger for another two hours (our time) or in that uniform, but it’s possible a messenger could be that fast.

Enough other events flow from the intrusion of this messenger that I need to know which it is now, and not later.   I could of course just delete the whole thing leading up to the messenger and start this section fresh, but something about the messenger feels right and necessary–and something in what I’ve written doesn’t.

This will untangle itself (hopefully sometime today) but until it does it’s an uncomfortable feeling.

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