W.7K

I'm in a quandry. I actually got back to writing last night, and managed 700 words, but it was a struggle. After an hour or so of staring at a blank screen (not entirely staring--a couple of false starts were scattered in there) I realized what my problem was: I had no idea what happened next. The next major beat in the story doesn't happen until the following chapter, so this one is mostly bridge work with some additional characterization. Once I actually realized and internalized this fact, I was able to shift mental gears and make something suitable up.

The long layoff from working on the novel did gave me a bit of perspective on what I've written thus far, and--revisiting that Tetris analogy--I'm seeing some significant gaps in the narrative. Particularly in the last two chapters. So I'm torn between going back and fixing these shortcomings now, while they're fresh in my mind, and forging ahead with the intent of coming back to them at some future date once the overall novel is significantly closer to being finished.

The thing is, I don't entirely trust myself to remember these specific trouble spots--or rather, remember my current "obvious solutions" to fix the individual problems. I could make notes, sure, but my notes are either brief to the point of being cryptic, or so detailed I might as well just go ahead and make the changes now. Decisions, decisions...

26,450 / 90,000 (29.4%)

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