Problem Solving and Writing

One of the side effects of the migraines for me is a problem concentrating. My mind tends to just get stuck.

I finished the query and synopsis workshops, but it was a challenge keeping my mind focused. The synopsis especially. I really wanted to just say the heck with it and drop it, but I had spent dear money on it and I couldn’t stand the thought of just wasting it. I still need to boil it down to a two page synopsis, but at least I have a five page done and that’s a good start.

I have forced myself to be more organized. If not, I can’t remember where I put papers or when I have appointments. This is really a good thing as I hate being disorganized anyway, but I just dreaded unpacking so many boxes that were just hastily thrown together and never sorted later.

Missing an appointment or not sending in paperwork on time in this situation can be disastrous so I have to stay on top of the program. I have to write down exactly what I have to do each day and where I am going and why. Grocery lists used to be optional. No more.

Another downside of this problem is actual problem solving. A person doesn’t think of writing as problem solving, but it is for me. If I have character A do this, how will it affect character B and the next scene or the scene down the road?

Since FAR RIDER is done, the query is done and the synopsis is done, it’s time to work on something new.

Since I have three novels that are already partially done, I am not starting another one. DANCING HORSES is finished except for revisions, but it’s lost on a hard drive Will is trying to recover.

SONG OF ILWEN has 29 chapters outlined. Well, it did. I seem to be missing some of them.

I think I’ve blogged about this before, but here we are again if I did.

Ilwen is the story of a young girl who has magical powers she shouldn’t have. Battle bards are rare. They follow the female lines of certain families and only one is born to a generation. Her older sister was a battle bard so Jhia knows she should not have these abilities. She thinks her minor abilities are either a fluke or possibly even a result of hanging around her best friend who is a pixie and overflowing with magic as all pixies are.

She can’t understand why the warrior’s guild is driving her so hard to become a warrior. She doesn’t want to be one. She can’t be a battle bard, who is destined to travel with the armies. She just wants to be a normal bard or maybe a baker. Her aspirations aren’t very high.

She doesn’t learn the truth until her village is attacked and one of her trainers reveals the truth. Her dead sister is actually her mother and her powers are not a fluke. She is destined to be a battle bard whether she wants to be one or not. They are too rare not to be called to service by the king.

Her grandmother has raised her as her daughter in the hopes Jhia would not inherit the gifts and be called to war.

Jhia also learns through a sorceress, her real mother is trapped between the living and the dead because she died in shame. Jhia must return to the past and relive her mother’s life to prove she wasn’t a murderess who committed suicide.

And therein lies the rub.

The story seems to work better for me with Jhia traveling back in time to relive her mother’s life and solve the mystery of the murder and prove she was actually murdered and didn’t commit suicide.

It would be simpler to write it straight forward as the events actually happening to Jhia instead of her reliving her mother’s life.

Again, it comes back to the problem solving. I can’t seem to project the story as I usually do. I see scenes almost as movies. I can see every detail in a scene.

It’s almost like learning to write all over. I can write through pain. I’ve done that before. This concentration thing is different.

The only thing I know to do is take Ilwen and rewrite it. Fill in the missing chapters and flesh it out. I’m afraid it will be nothing but trash when I’m done, but if I stop exercising the writing muscles, they will atrophy.