Clearing the First Hurdle

The new house is mostly unpacked, the Olympics are over [hurdle joke goes here], so I guess I need to start writing this next book!

Okay, I started already. I have a chapter down. Truth be told, I am not completely enamored with it. It's easy to get frustrated and shove the document to the side and pretend it doesn't exist. I keep trying to remind myself that I wasn't crazy about the first chapter or so of The Edge of the Sphere either, and that got a lot better (or at least I hope it did).

I'm one of those people who needs to write in order. With every story, there are parts that are very detailed in my head, and I'll know exactly what I want to do when I get there. Usually those are important/climactic scenes. I know myself, though. If I jump right into those scenes and have my fun right away, I won't want to go back to the "boring" parts. I'm also concerned about the overall flow of things if I tried to write out of order. Don't get me wrong, I edit the crap out of everything and I've definitely shuffled scenes around and reorganized chapters (and sat down and pulled my hair out when I realized my initial plans weren't working out so well). But even if I know my final scenes are going to be AWESOME, I hold off on writing them until I actually get there.

In a way, it's more satisfying to write that way. Pretend I wrote some insightful commentary about how we've become a culture focused on instant gratification and no one has any patience these days. When I finally get to the scenes I've been looking forward to for so long, writing becomes an exhilarating experience. I know what's going to happen at that point, the words practically write themselves, and it feels so, so good.

(And with the type of books I write, things should feel good....)