Admitting weakness

I’ve hit another wall in the writing process (this last week/weekend was pretty unsuccessful — I’m going to fall wayyyyy short of my goal of 15,000 words for the month), and realized why.  I can’t write battle scenes.

I don’t know what it is, but I can’t write large-scale battles.  That was my last big hang-up, and it seems to be the current one.  Thankfully, this is the only other major battle in the book, so once it’s over, I’m done with that dilemma (at least until the next book).  I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out a way around it, and I think I have it.

One of the main characters gets injured during the course of the fight (which is necessary to set up the next part of the plot), so I’m going to try to write the battle from his perspective.  I think this will be an easier way for me to write it — it will be more feeling/emotion based, which is a nice way to help develop his character, and it’ll be like a series of small conflicts — no need to describe large scale combat.

I feel it’s important to identify your strengths and weaknesses — not only does it provide you with an opportunity to work on your weaknesses, but it helps move you past the roadblocks that your weaknesses spring up.

So what are your weaknesses and how have you moved past or corrected them?

Breaking Through

Since I broke the little wall I hit the other day, the words have been flowing quickly.  I pounded out over 1,500 words last night, and expect another 1,000-1,300 tonight.  I should definitely break the 40,000 word mark (probably this week), and I expect to hit the 45,000 word mark by the end of the month.

It’s amazing what happens once the floodgates open.  I got past a little impasse scene for me — a battle I couldn’t seem to get past.  As soon as I did, I hit a bump, which I think was a result of my brain trying to rest after struggling with the battle for so long (I’ve been writing the battle sequence, which is interspersed with some other scenes for a couple of months probably).  Now, the next part of the book is flowing smoothly and I’m not feeling any angst about getting through it.

I outlined the remainder of the book, separating it into 22 parts (of varying size).  I had previously outlined it, but then realized that some of the items needed to be moved around, modified and, in a few cases, deleted.  The updated outline should last me for awhile, before I re-evaluate and possibly make more changes.