I've found it very hard to write these last few months.
I've had two weeks of annual leave and barely looked at the work in progress during that time, and when I am working the job that pays the bills, I spend my meal break on the work computer, browsing for vegetarian recipes for my new (re)found vegetarian lifestyle.
The work computer is partly to blame. A new system was installed a few months ago that allowed us to access web sites we had previously been barred from seeing - don't get too excited; the sites in question are just google, play/amazon and a forum if you're lucky. However, they don't allow us to use external USB sticks in the new system because everything is now rerouted through a remote drive. Or something.
We can, however, still access the old system, which does allow us to use the beloved external USB stick, thus enabling us to write to our hearts content (my multiple demons and I) except that I have no access to google or indeed any sites that enable me to unstick myself from the ruts I find myself stuck in when my story is in a place that makes me want to tear the whole thing apart and use it as proverbial kindling.
And that's where I'm to blame.
I loved my underground story. I was going to take myself out of my comfort zone and be the new Neil Gaimian/Terry Pratchett. And had I decided to write a short story, I probably could have made it work too. Except that my writing style is more descriptive and serious than the opening of my WIP would have you believe, and thus I have something that starts in a lighthearted, funny, Terry Pratchett way and then gradually skydives into Anne Rice (well, not really, but not far off IMO).
And as I'd written in my previous post on genres - the later, more serious story I'd played around with is very much in keeping with my writing style, except that while I have a few people raving about it (and actually preferring it to my Underground story, the bloody cheek!) there are others who point out that it's been done before (I haven't read the published stories but I'm curious to know how similar they are to my idea) and it's pointless working on it if it's only going to end up being compared to an original idea.
And about the Underground story - I'm in an uncomfortable place with it at the moment. I have a vague idea of where I want my character to go now, but I just can't figure out how to get him there! And the middle feels too rushed. The ideas I'd originally had have ended up being ignored for the sake of fast-routing and I feel as though I've done my WIP a disservice, but I have no idea where to go back to change it.
I am trying to drill a new mantra into my thick skull: The Key is in the EDITING.
The work computer is partly to blame. A new system was installed a few months ago that allowed us to access web sites we had previously been barred from seeing - don't get too excited; the sites in question are just google, play/amazon and a forum if you're lucky. However, they don't allow us to use external USB sticks in the new system because everything is now rerouted through a remote drive. Or something.
We can, however, still access the old system, which does allow us to use the beloved external USB stick, thus enabling us to write to our hearts content (my multiple demons and I) except that I have no access to google or indeed any sites that enable me to unstick myself from the ruts I find myself stuck in when my story is in a place that makes me want to tear the whole thing apart and use it as proverbial kindling.
And that's where I'm to blame.
I loved my underground story. I was going to take myself out of my comfort zone and be the new Neil Gaimian/Terry Pratchett. And had I decided to write a short story, I probably could have made it work too. Except that my writing style is more descriptive and serious than the opening of my WIP would have you believe, and thus I have something that starts in a lighthearted, funny, Terry Pratchett way and then gradually skydives into Anne Rice (well, not really, but not far off IMO).
And as I'd written in my previous post on genres - the later, more serious story I'd played around with is very much in keeping with my writing style, except that while I have a few people raving about it (and actually preferring it to my Underground story, the bloody cheek!) there are others who point out that it's been done before (I haven't read the published stories but I'm curious to know how similar they are to my idea) and it's pointless working on it if it's only going to end up being compared to an original idea.
And about the Underground story - I'm in an uncomfortable place with it at the moment. I have a vague idea of where I want my character to go now, but I just can't figure out how to get him there! And the middle feels too rushed. The ideas I'd originally had have ended up being ignored for the sake of fast-routing and I feel as though I've done my WIP a disservice, but I have no idea where to go back to change it.
I am trying to drill a new mantra into my thick skull: The Key is in the EDITING.
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