On Writing: Show me some teeth

These last few months, I'm rewriting the second book of a story I started years ago and so far it’s been like child's play. I created a new Word File and since I knew where the plot is heading, I wrote chapter after chapter and created a new story. It was wonderful and easy and I felt so powerful and happy that I foolishly let myself believe that I would finish it up in a blink of an eye.

Yesterday though things got an unexpected turn.

There I am sitting on the sofa, my favorite woolen blanket wrapped around my feet, my laptop turned on, the World File open and the words"Chapter 18"  blinking before my eyes like neon lights. I quickly scroll up the page to read a paragraph or two from the last chapter I wrote and then I place my hands on the keyboard.

And nothing happens.

I read the old chapter again, the original one from the first draft but I don't see how it will fit into my new story. What changed? Why cannot I continue the story? I take my hands away from the keyboard and suddenly I feel a change in the air, a chill running down my spine.

I look at the screen and I do not see a half finished draft, but a scary face grinning at me! And I freeze while negative thoughts start spinning inside my head. But you know what?

Writing, rewriting or creating a story can be very stressful. Especially if you do it alone, learning and experimenting, making mistakes and sweating over the keyboard so you can create a real story, with real characters and even if you do not know what you will actually do when it's done, you keep going!

I wonder sometimes: what does keep me going? But I don't have to look inside me too long to answer that question. What keeps me going is the need to write that story and every other story I have in my mind, and write them in the best possible way.

And then who knows? Can we predict the future?

At least some of us can't. ;)