Write, Damn You!

You know when you’re writing along, struggling to make up the story, make the characters realistic, make the dialogue flow, make the plot intriguing, but you just can’t find it?  You know when the going advice is just to keep writing, to push through that mess and figure it out later?  You know?

So you follow the advice, you do what Stephan King and every other author of note says.  You write your little heart out.  Your fingers bleed from the effort of pounding the keyboard.  Your carpal tunnel is acting up and your eyes are bleary from the strain.

Two-thousand words.  Five-thousand.  Six-thousand and you have a full chapter. Ten-thousand words, and you’re deep into the second chapter.

That’s when the house of cards comes down.

You knew it was wrong the whole time.  You were building your house on sand.

The only good thing is that some of this is salvageable, and you now have the “true” start to your book.

Goodbye chapters one and two.  You fought a good fight, but you were outmaneuvered and outnumbered.