Well, I have been stuck on about 70 pages for a week now. I knew what I wanted my ending to be but wasn't quite sure how to get there. And it was really starting to bother me that it took me until page 70 for my love interest to show up.

Then this morning as I was lamenting the whole thing to my husband (again!) the solution popped into my head. It was a flash of brilliance.

Quit trying to keep everything in chronological order. It's a time travel story after all, so it shouldn't matter anyway. Now I can bring in the love interest at the beginning of the script and tell the other bits in flashback. Boom, boom, boom, and boom and now I'm neatly to the ending that I wanted.

Only problem is that now I'm in a bit of a panic over doing a complete restructuring at this late date in the month. It's like completely reorganizing your office. You know it is going to make a huge mess before you can organize it again. And once you are in the middle of it you're thinking what did I do? I don't want to start to tinker, get caught up in the new flow of the story and then miss the 30 day deadline.

Do I just tamp down the need to put it how I want it until I hit my 100 pages and then go back and fix it? Or just shut up and fix it already and quit being a whiner?

Yeah, that sounds like editing, and you shouldn't do that. Make a quick note of what you want to do then charge forward until you hit 100 (or the finish). Once we're in May you can start to edit and tweak and re-order.

I wouldn't re-order anything now either. It'll take too much time away from actual writing and page count. That said, if a scene that has yet be written but would come somewhere back there in your script, weighes heavily on you, then go ahead and write it. I've had to do that today. There were two scenes that had to be added because the part I'm on wouldn't make much sense without them. I tried forging ahead anyway without them, but I found that I couldn't concentrate. My mind kept returning to those scenes. So I gave up and went back and wrote them. Now I can focus on the end, plus there's details in the two scenes I hadn't thought about before that I'll need to keep in mind as I write tomorrow.

So, if it's not writing, don't do it. But if your muse is being stubborn and won't budge, then by all means write what your story demands. Just don't labor over it unnecessarily. If all you can do is a summary of the scene, leave it at that and go back and elaborate in May. (Both my added scenes were short. Just enough to get them off my mind without leaving any confusion over what they were about later.) But if you don't absolutely need to go back and add, then keep writing to the end and add later. Write whatever it takes to keep your script (and your muse) moving ahead. Good luck!

2007-Twilight Glow (winner!) 2008-The Return (winnner!) 2009-Ring of Thorns "A good story is life, with the dull parts taken out." ~Alfred Hitchcock

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Thank you for the input!

That's what I'm going to do, just make a mad sprint for the finish line. It seems my biggest obstacle to this right now is not the diminishing time. It's trying to turn off the editor in my head who is trying to re-write what I've already written. BE QUIET ALREADY!

(smiles sheepishly)
Well, you can see the problem.

Thanks again! :D

I've found that the best way to shut the inner editor up is to just tell myself that I already did whatever editing it is that my inner editor wanted me to do. For example, for three days now I've pretended that I already told the audience the antagonist's motivation. I knew what it was but I was on a roll with the rest of my story, and going back to figure out where to fit that in would have derailed me. My inner editor was after me to write it down. So I just pretended that I already revealed it. I added a one-liner to my "notes" document and kept going with my main story line. Today realized exactly where the revealing scene should go and what it should look like, so I hammered it out.

Telling my inner editor that "yes, that was good advice, and by the way, I already wrote that part" has worked wonders for me.

That's what I did...and I got it done. It's crap and needs lots of work, but it's done. And now I'm going to honor the ancient tradition of writers and get drunk.

Uh-oh, was I supposed to wait until I was finished to get drunk? Maybe that's what was slowing me down last week. :D

alas, bourbon makes a poor to no substitute for one's muse. I'm on p75, start of Act 3 - I got nothing. I know what I could write - and maybe just maybe be a "winner."
but its not the clever ending I want.
& I'm not gunna make it. I'm a failure.
and it makes me feel like poo

3 days until fade out.

frak

if you ever make it to WI i'll buy you a drink. good hunting.

No, no, no! Don't give up. Go back and write. Write now!

You don't have to be clever now. And don't knock the "winner" status. It may seem silly, but the goofy certificate & the winner icons you get can be very encouraging as you go back and edit later. Then as you go through the drudge work of achieving the clever ending that you really wanted that "winner" status can really push you over the hump.

In Weight Watchers they give you a cheap little cardboard bookmark that my meeting leader calls a "Star Catcher." When you have little achievements they give you a star sticker. Things like hitting another 5 pounds or reaching your 5% or 10% goal. Sometimes just for being good to yourself for the week they give you a "Bravo Star" sticker. Again, it is a kind of silly thing, but I live for those stars. And I love watching the collection grow on my bookmark.

So go back and write some more. Time is not up yet!

organization is important and make effect if applied on time otherwise a lot of mess makes everything confused. always try to take small steps with complete planning and organization in order to avoid such hassles.

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