Gone Writing – Day 34

Do you ever have that feeling that you are really close to something, that you can almost touch it, that you almost have it in your hand and then it slips through your fingers and it’s gone? Like snapping a picture of a turtle in the water.

It happens with plot twists and turns. When you’re brooding over your story to find a twist that will bring you the change your protagonist needs to move forward, a turn that you need to move the story forward and keep the reader engaged.

They’re fickle things, stories, and they can keep you tossing and turning at night, surrounded by the dark like you are snorkeling in murky waters without even a sliver of light piercing through. It can make it impossible to see a way out, your brain going in circles or even sending you spiraling deeper into the murkiness. Never finding that turtle you had hoped for.

Sometimes it helps me to embrace the dark, to plunge deeper into the story, let the brain spin out of control and see where it brings me. But other times I need stop the tossing and turning because it will only drag me in deeper. That’s when I need to get up and just start writing, focus on the next steps instead of letting the big picture bother me, get my head out the murky waters.

Or as my muse would no doubt put it, wade through it and it will see great daylight.

Green sea turtle (honu)