I got a few words yesterday. I'll count them up later because I switched notebooks, which means that I changed the rough words-per-page count, so have to establish a new baseline before I can give a word count.
But for the most part I was stuck. Sure I was writing stuff, but most of it was summary because there really didn't seem to be too much happening in the scene. And the heroine was sitting back at home twiddling her thumbs, waiting for the hero to save the day. Booooorrrrring.
Also, I've been sort-of bad. A few days ago I discovered that www.hulu.com had the whole of the "Life" tv-show series. It only ran for 1.5 seasons. I saw most of the first season (the 0.5 season part) and enjoyed it. Sure, not great literature, but good enough, with interesting premise. But I for whatever reason, I missed the second season. So, while I was doing boring stuff on the computer, I started watching it from the beginning. Then I was watching it while I wasn't doing anything on the computer, just for the sake of watching it. The whole time I was watching it, I was kicking myself because I have so many "better" things that I should be doing... but I was watching the show instead. Yet at the same time I had this little feeling inside me that watching the tv-show was the "right" thing to be doing... which I was happy to admit could have been the sweet little voice of justification.
Last night, I stayed up late to watch the series finale and afterwards realized that I really need something more going on in my story. Something to complicate things further. The good guys think they have everything well in hand, and of course we can't have that happening in a book. :-) So, after I get done spend a fair share of three days watching the tv-show, I realize what my problem is with my book. I needed to seriously raise the stakes in the story.
And then this morning, I wake up with the fix. I hadn't dreamed about it, I hadn't even thought about it after briefly pondering the problem before bed. But as I was getting out of bed, the question popped into my head again, "how can I make it more important?", and the answer immediately followed. Wow! :-)
Just to add a little icing onto the cake, the answer came with all kinds of little complications that raise the stakes for everybody. Cool! :-)
So, I don't know how many words today, as I need to ponder a whole bunch more backstory and logistics changes.
Come to find out, spending all that time watching the tv-show was just what I needed to make this a better book. I'm glad I listened to the little voice, justification or not, because watching the tv-show made this a better book. :-)
