Spring in Tucson
Mar. 12th, 2007 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienThings are looking more springlike around here, now. I spotted the texas mountain laurel in flower today -- lovely smoky-blue tassels of bloom that smell like warm beer. The mislabeled and frost-blasted white orchid tree behind the Education building is putting out tender new leaves, which gives me some cause to hope that though it may not flower this year it isn't completely dead, and there are buds on the beavertail cactus near the grocery store. The weather has entered on that pleasant but usually brief period when it's possible to be comfortable without either heating or cooling, and the birds are active and vocal.
And I added 788 words to Defector tonight, which isn't bad for a story that I stalled out on only a few months ago.
The other night, a colleague asked me what I do when I get stuck, and I answered at once, "Write a different bit." That does seem to be working for me at present -- either skipping ahead, or going back to fill in bits I skipped earlier. Both Ambassador and Vortex were written in almost random order; I do tend to start at the beginning and at least do the end in the last session, but everything in between is subject to change, amplification, rearrangement. It can be dangerous; part of the reason Vortex stuck for so long was that the bits didn't quite fit together and I couldn't see how to wedge in the joining pieces, but I got there in the end, and without sacrificing more than a few sentences. Defector, on the other hand, has been rather more linear so far. We'll see what happens as we progress, I suppose.
And I added 788 words to Defector tonight, which isn't bad for a story that I stalled out on only a few months ago.
The other night, a colleague asked me what I do when I get stuck, and I answered at once, "Write a different bit." That does seem to be working for me at present -- either skipping ahead, or going back to fill in bits I skipped earlier. Both Ambassador and Vortex were written in almost random order; I do tend to start at the beginning and at least do the end in the last session, but everything in between is subject to change, amplification, rearrangement. It can be dangerous; part of the reason Vortex stuck for so long was that the bits didn't quite fit together and I couldn't see how to wedge in the joining pieces, but I got there in the end, and without sacrificing more than a few sentences. Defector, on the other hand, has been rather more linear so far. We'll see what happens as we progress, I suppose.
