So, this time, I didn’t update on Monday because I was sick. It was an easy ER trip, though. The doc knew about my condition, so he did a quick exam and then gave me my meds and sent me to wait in a recliner until they kicked in and knocked me out. A nurse came and asked if I was ready to go and I said no, because I still felt nauseous and probably couldn’t walk. Then another half hour or so passed and the nurse was back, and I felt confident enough to be on my way.
I got home and went to sleep. I woke up around 430pm, and my sister brought me Gatorade. Then I went back to sleep, and woke up around 7. Then I went back to sleep at 9 and woke at 1230am. Which is why now, at 3am, I am writing my blog.
I didn’t have much to say. I was just going to write about writer’s block. I suffered a short-term case during the past few weeks, as evidenced by my lack of output. But yesterday, I reworked the ending of part one of my WIP. I introduced a character, small but important, who explains a few things that need to be known to my MC’s (main characters.) The MC’s are on a major Caribbean island after living their life on a significantly smaller one with few people, no cars or big buildings, and relative quiet. I was struggling with a scene, where I’m getting them off their rowboat and onto the island, and I obsessed over it for a week. I know I should have moved on and come back to it, but it was the final scene of part one and I just had to finish it. So, I brainstormed with Mark.
Mark is great for this, as he is not a writer, but he does have a vivid imagination. He’s not much of a reader either, so I am kind of telling him the story as I go, which is also helpful. But sometimes I get stuck and I go to him, and we spend half an hour or so going over my ideas. He likes to give suggestions of where the story should go, and sometimes they are good. A lot of times they aren’t applicable to what I’ve already got going on, in which case I say a simple “no,” and we move on. He never gets mad if I shoot down his idea. He knows this is my thing.
Anyway, we brainstormed, and out popped a character that the MC’s know as “the man with the hat,” but whom I secretly named Bernie after my sister and her youthful affinity for bucket hats. (Photo below.)
This gentleman explains to my MC’s some very basic information that they need on the island, and points them in the right direction in their quest. It’s probably a frowned upon trope, but I don’t care. I needed it to get to where I had to be. Plus…this is just a first draft.
So, I am back on the writing train, and I am working hard on my WIP and hoping more ideas come to me soon for my blog, because I can’t write about the same things all the time…sickness and writing. I mean I’m a pro at both, but I just need new topics.
But, I got past the part of my book where I was stuck. I completed part one, at over 20k words. That is certainly something to celebrate.
Ham 'N Eggs 