Getting There
I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned it recently or not, and I don’t feel like going to check, but I am making some progress on my novel.
It’s one I started many moons ago, back in the early 90s. Got through several drafts and gave up in frustration. At some point, I had outlined the whole novel from beginning to end, but never went back to finish it. Wound up getting stuck on things and not figuring out how to move it forward and whatnot.
Anyway, I picked it up again a few weeks ago and started working on it again. I began by entering all I had into the computer. I had some hand-written pages but most was on printouts from an old Apple IIe computer. I probably have it on disk, but don’t have a go-between to get it from the Apple IIe to a modern computer.
So, I re-typed it all in, following my notes as to what parts of what versions to use and editing as I went. Sometimes, I did some rewriting as well.
Last night, or rather way early this morning, I finished the ninth chapter. Well, technically, I finished chapter five, as chapters six through nine were already done.
So, now I will be moving on to chapter ten. Of thirty-three. Unless I find I need more as I write.
This is now the section of the novel where I have nothing written except for a synopsis of what happens in each chapter. Before, I had several chapters already written in multiple versions. I had done several rewrites as I struggled with POV and other issues.
Not sure if that’s going to make things easier or not, since I am essentially starting from scratch on each new chapter.
Just keep at it and take a break whenever you feel a writers block coming on. My closest experience to this was writing a guide on computer repairs and even that drained me.