Hiatus for DwY · 10:25am Sep 8th, 2017
With three, maybe four, chapters to go I'm struggling with Dæling With Yt.
I have three scenes written so far in the latest chapter and I'm dissatisfied with them. I've been beating my head against them for many days and I'm still unhappy. So I've spent the last two or three days on other non-writing things and stuck DwY on a back-burner. What I've realized is that it's probably not this chapter which is the problem.
- there's a LOT going on in the story and much of it feels disconnected.
- the initial ideas have lost focus.
- I still don't know what the ending is... I have a general idea, but I'm not sold on it and I'm pretty sure my readers wouldn't be either.
- basically it's a hodge-podge of concepts, characters and scenes that don't add up to much other than being interesting... to me anyway.
This seems to be a common problem with 'pantsing' a story.
I feel a bit like a foal who's loaded up a plate with corn-on-the-cob, hay-fries, corn chowder, ice cream, a slice of pie, a cupcake, whipped creme and a hoofful of cherries. I'm watching the ice creme melt over the corn and fries, the cherries sinking into the chowder, and wondering how the heck I'm going to eat this unappealing mess of deliciousness.
I think the sensible thing to do is re-read everything I've written so far; make notes and figure out what's important; perhaps a re-write of previous chapters; figure out what the heck the ending is so I can write it.
I also have a couple of other stories I'm working on. One is another 'pantsing' story, but it's a goofy comedy so being sensible doesn't matter quite as much... that I have no idea how to end it does, so it's also currently stymied. I haven't published any of it yet so no need to hiatus it as well. *whew* The other is a post-apocalypse road-trip romance so it's much more linear, making it a little easier to get from start to finish. With the lessons I've learned in writing DwY I'm going to make an effort to be more focused with it.
Sorry for putting DwY on hiatus. I will try to make sure it's not permanent.
