God Awful Scene Transition

I've been stuck on Sarah's book for quite a while... well... I hate to admit it, but it's been since Nov 17, 2008, that I've been stuck.  On that day I wrote:

Done with the edit of chapter 2.  But can’t get into chapter 3.

But part of it is [the last time I edited this book] also that I fought the transition from the last scene to this scene for… I just checked… _4_ months. Last time it took me _four_ months to get this transition to work.

The good news it that the lessons I learned then were well-learned, and I now know how to make scene transitions work. I guess that’s good news.

Sigh.  And just for the fun of it, I went back to check and see what was up with the last time I fought with this scene transition.  On August 1, 2007, I wrote:

I read over the first chapter, and like the new transition. It’s
completely in character, and I put in a hint of something into the first
chapter, which makes it fall right into place. And it worked out well.
So, my fight for the last… how long?… checking… around 4 months is
finally over, the transition from chapter 1 to chapter 2 is done.

Which at first glance might seem like different problem, except this time around chapter 1 ended up becoming chapter 1&2, so it's exactly the same transition.

And... this morning, it belatedly occurred to me, beyond the chapter going from one chapter to two chapters, I changed the character.  So what worked as a good transition for the first draft might not be in character this time around.  Duh!!  **sigh**

I really hate it when I feel this stupid.

But I also know that my muse has been on vacation for a very long time, so maybe I'm not as stupid as I feel and it's that she's finally back guiding the boat.