Out of Order

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t believe in writer’s block. I still don’t. But after the whirlwind of being selected for Pitch Wars, revising, signing with my agent, and revising again, I found myself a little… stopped up. I still had a drip of inspiration here and there, but I couldn’t seem to open the tap.

I already had a strong hook for my current manuscript, character sheets, a rough synopsis, and some words on the page. Still, every time I sat down at the computer, using the same routine that worked so well for me in the past, I would agonize for 300 words. I thought I was broken.

After a lunch date with a couple of writer buddies (waves to Sunil and Sarah), I felt inspired to return to my first love, SFF short stories. In one afternoon, I knocked out a story I loved. I’ve never done that before. I realized that the reason it was so easy was because I wrote the scenes I wanted to, regardless of where they went in the story. I’ve never done that with a larger work.

Thanks to Scrivener, (this is not a paid ad for Scrivener, FYI), writing out of order is not a big deal. After I convinced my brain that writing out of order was a legitimate way to write a book, the words started flowing again.

Although I’m a little nervous about how to piece everything together when I’m done with all these random kissing scenes, I’m happy to see my story taking shape so quickly and I’m getting a good feeling for my characters and their relationships to each other.

I guess I’m… having fun again? Yeah, that sounds right.