Out of Doubt

No need to send a search party. I wrote my way out of the vortex this morning. (Still a little dizzy, but on my feet again.)  So what worked?

One: I opened the door to the main character's flaws by asking what has/what will she fail at? We all fall flat on our faces at times, much as we try to be perfect. The more we aim for perfection, the farther there is to fall. Good to remember that characters are better, and miles more believable, when they are not perfect.

Two: I chose to be grateful for the resistance I felt yesterday. Yes, grateful. Much as I hate to run up against it, resistance is almost always just the universe's way of reminding me to let go and get out of my own way. So I expressed my gratitude for being able to see that there are gaps, some of them quite large, in the plot and in the characters' lives that I couldn't see before. And then? Questions about missing pieces began to pop up. Questions like where Gabby's favorite place/place of refuge is and what she was obsessed with, or at least highly curious about, as a child.

Three: I went back to a scene I felt was powerful when I first wrote it and looked there for clues about what else might happen. Asked what implications that scene had for other parts of the story based on what it revealed about the characters. That opened the floodgates, encouraging me to search other key/favorite scenes for clues. By the time I put my pen down today, the gaps had transformed from uncrossable chasms into potential bridges.

Lesson to carry forward? When doubt creeps in, take a deep breath. Don't force answers. Invite questions.