I am trying so hard to write my first 50,000word novel but I am stuck- I am swimming in detail and words and the plot is not progessing. I don't know how to move the thing on.
Do I just carry on, or do I jump and then come back and fill this difficult passage in? I know what happens afterwords, I know what the affect will be on the characters of what is about to happen to them, but how to do it? I know there is a really really good novel in there. The characters are all correct, the plot is correct, I like the way they speak and I write good speech (there, at least I am being honest for once) but I actually prefer to read descriptive writing and I am writing short staccato sentences, a hangover from a writing group I attended and which almost destroyed my wish to write. This is the last blow of their influence on me.
The advice to writes is to show and not tell. I don;t understand this yet and will have to find out what it all means as I progress. It is like learning a craft, and I don;t know why I find it so discouraging that it is difficult. At least, even if I do this badly, I will end up with a 50,000word novel on my computer and one that is ready to take to pieces and rewrite. I suspect one of my difficulties is that what I really want to write is a long family saga, and what I am doing is something much more racy. How to combine these two elements in what is really a first draft novel is so hard for me.
Perseverance - and writing this journal will help me to excercise my writing muscles. Thats the hope.
Now - coffee and a 3 hour stretch of novel to see what happens next. Maybe I will like the next section more. Wish me bon voyage.....
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