(Would you believe I'm presently reading Treasure Island)
And there it is, lock, stock, and barrel, the whole bloody mess that is part one of Sunder, my literary tribute to the B-Movie genre. (This means that I have finished the first draft of part one.)
The ending of part one presented me with the closest thing I've ever known to writer's block. In this last chapter, all I needed was to find the portal to the next world and zap, let them port and be done with it. So why did it take me so many days to write a measly 2,440 words? Because the ending needed some sort of kick in the pants. By this point in the story, my readers (should I ever acquire some) as well as myself, would be sick of the damn hell trees. I needed to spice things up, so even though there was one last battle with the forces of darkness, I glossed over the final hell tree encounter and moved quickly on to the cave portal.
And there I became stuck. I was standing on the precipice of completion. All I had to do was end the thing.
The problem was that everything leading up to this point made it impossible to just say they found the portal and vanished. There had to be a problem. That, it turned out, was a problem for me.
Clay is standing before the portal with Mark.It's only a few feet away. Where am I going to come up with a conflict at this point? Is it time to bring in the machine gun toting naked women as suggested by course instructor, Zette? No, I want to save the naked women for later.
So for days, I half heartedly stabbed at the chapter hoping an idea would come before I lost patience and just had them port with the ease of turning on the TV. A solution did come, of course, and it was so simple I didn't even realize I had found it until I had finished writing it. I had even mentioned the problem earlier on but had overlooked it's potential. The solution, as I said, was simple. If you came upon a pile of stones you suspected of being a portal to another world, how would you go about triggering it? And there you go, a perfect little dilemma to frustrate the boys before they can port to Part Two.
I can now say the first draft of Part One is complete.
It's now time to move on to the more funner stuff: ZOMBIES.
Well done for getting Part One done and dusted Rick, and I see that you're very nearly halfway through the progress meter :) Sounds like the hell trees have been living up to their name then? Bring on the zombies!
ReplyDeleteI'm planning to have a mad catch up on everything next week, so will look forward to reading about the story so far here and on your 2YN thread :)
Part One done already? Bah, you’re such a focused workhorse it makes me sick. With envy, that is. Congratulations! Onward to Part Two.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note: when I come across a pile of stones I suspect of being a portal to another world, I throw more rocks at it. Just for kicks, you know.
Thanks to both of you.
ReplyDeleteTanya, I'm keeping my progress bar at the original 90,000 projection because it gives me such an exaggerated sense of accomplishment. (The more realistic number is 120,000)
Riggs, it's people like you who make porting between universes such a pain in the ass for the rest of us.