wordworking -

Dateline: May. 22, 2009

You will all be stunned to know that I am already on page three of the next chapter. I've been working diligently in the last week, and it has taught me something about myself as a writer. It has taught me that I just can't write quickly. I have to write a little bit and then let it sit for a while before I can go on. I mean, I have an outline for the chapter, and I did make myself plow through it, putting the most bland and boring sentences on the page just to get the basic story out there (like, "Churchill stopped talking to Emma and went to talk to Jane Fairfax. Then Knightley noticed that Mrs. Weston started talking to Emma.") I thought that once I had the outline there, it would speed me up in the task of filling it out. But it doesn't. I can't think of a thing to say more than what I've written. However, if I put it aside for a few days and come back to it, I can usually think of something.

The usual explanation for this phenomenon is that my unconscious mind is working on it even while I'm not thinking about it. I don't know. It's a little discouraging, because having the end of Volume One in sight (two chapters after this one, I think), I'm itching to get it finished and into print. I thought that if I could put everything else in my life aside and just write like mad, it would be done in a week or two. Not that I could put everything aside... Anyway, it's just as well I can't, because it looks like it wouldn't help anyway.

All that to say, I'm hoping to be finished with the chapter in the next week or so...and even that will set some kind of a record, I think!

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