My friend Alix told me the other day that she was thinking of doing NaNoWriMo. In the end, she signed up for Seventy Days of Sweat instead. Same idea, more time. She’s never written and novel, but has the time, is a good writer, and had the inclination. I offered to be one of her “go to” people when she felt overwhelmed or needed advice.

That got us talking about stumbling blocks. For me, it’s a point about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the first draft. Knowing where to start the story is always a bit of a challenge, but once that’s done, I take off and write, write, write and then all of a sudden the manuscript becomes one of those lawn sprinklers. Not the kind that gently arc over the grass (like in the photo), or the kind that go in one direction for a while and then ratchet back and start over, but one of those wild ones that flings water all over the yard in crazy swoops and spray like a snake whipping around. You can’t get near them to move them without turning them off because there’s no pattern to the movement. You can’t see what you have, you can’t control it, it’s got a total life and will of its own. This is how I see my manuscript in my head at that point in the writing.

I generally go through a period where I try to tame it and plough on, but eventually I have to give in, print it out, read from the beginning and then, and only then, do I realize two things. One, it’s a lot rougher than in my imagination, and two it’s FINE! I just need to keep going!

What part trips you up?

P.S. After looking at sprinkler pictures, I remembered that sometimes there’s a rainbow. Maybe I should look for one in my book when I get to that point! And boy, does that look fun! Why haven’t I done that it twenty years?