After two weeks of being sick, and slow to catch up on my novel, my characters are silent. They won’t talk to me, and it’s causing me a little case of writer’s block. So, what am I supposed to do? Babble!

I have my whole novel blocked out in my head and broken down on paper by the scenes or events that need to happen, so babbling my way through an “sfd” (s****y first draft) copy is a little easier. I know where the foreshadowing needs to happen, and how we need to get from point a to point 80. Yes, I’m aware that the number 80 is not a point one can usually get to from an alphabetical point. But have you ever tried to follow the spider web that is a book plot? It’s confusing man!

I have done a few small free write sessions about my characters and the town they live in. I’ve done a few free write sessions on the origins of the town, and the founding families. But my current characters still won’t talk to me. Nora-Pearl must be on a working spree, and Jonah’s just crabby with me. It’s completely unacceptable if you ask me. And of course, they’re not asking me. So here I am on day 18 of my Novel Month Write challenge, stuck on chapter 12. I’m six whole chapters behind, and the town has gone into hiding. It’s like they know the horrible things that are coming in book two and they’re getting a jump start on hiding out. Rude!

So, what does one do when they are suffering from writer’s block? Babbling through free writes hasn’t helped much, so I drew up a map of the town. Maybe the setting of the events will help me focus? Nope. Perhaps I’ll sketch my main characters. That’s sure to help me figure out what they’re up to. I just have to imagine the scars on his face, and the cracks in her overworked hands, right? Wrong! That’s not helping me either.

“But B, what are you going to do? You have the second half of the first book to write, and you are running out of time!”

I know ok!? I’m just going to stumble through the first draft blindly, and I’ll have to budget more time for edits. I have a coworker that was working on his own novel, and he showed me his outline. It was a 75k word outline. That’s longer than my entire book! Maybe I’ll have to try that method. Write down every note and thought I have and see if I can string the ideas together as sentences. I’ll try that method and let you know what happens.

Tune in next week to see where my insanity has led me!

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