Help, My Characters are Stalking Me!

During the last go-round of rewriting Reset, a new character knocked on my door. Really loudly. I mean, hammered. Now, she and her ever growing entourage refuse to leave me alone!

I am 30K (ish) words in to Rewind, a prequel to Reset, and I hate to admit, but I've hit The Wall.

It sucks, the story's weak, the plot confusing...The ever growing list of negative feed into my brain makes me want to quit, and these new characters, who fit nowhere into my plans, are urging me, pressuring me, threatening me to pay attention to THEM!

They're all there when I wake up in the morning, they follow me on my morning hike with my dogs, they sit down at the computer with me, whispering and scratching in my head...They come to bed with me, keeping me awake with their constant chatter.

I'm beginning to feel like the Verizon guy..."Can you hear me now?"

But, I need to keep on track! Finish what I've started....

Right?

Even as I type this post, I find myself scribbling scenes for these characters on the backs of my old business cards (hey, they are good for something). I discover that their story is NOT to be ignored. It feels too powerful somehow.

Am I up for it? Do I even have the skills, newbie that I am, to bring it to life?

Am I a failure for not finishing my WIP?

Will this be the story of my writing life: begin a novel, hit The Wall, give up and let myself be bullied and coerced into starting a new one?

I can't think of the answers right now, I have to research names, build a world, create a language...

Uh, oh, sounds suspiciously like Sci-fi, a 180 degree turn from the Paranormal Romance that Reset became as I revisited themes and 'What Matters' during my (many) rewrites.

Yikes. What the hell am I getting myself into now?

Don't Look Directly at the Stars

Yesterday's planned beginning for my new novel was an epic fail. Or so I thought...

As I opened my shiny new (and blank) project in YWriter, I realized that there was still a huge promise left unanswered in my finished manuscript. I mean, HUGE. So huge that it threatened the credibility of the story (okay, so what's credible about a paranormal fantasy?).

So huge that I couldn't bear to address it.

Instead of at least attempting to solve the HUGE problem in the finished manuscript, I nitpicked through my outline for the first scene of the new one. I mean, how much time can you spend on a one liner description? ALL DAY, apparently. And I got stuck on a name for a new character. Really! As if that's important at this stage! Like puppies, characters often name themselves once you take the time to get to know them.

As I was disgustedly wrapping up my day's worth of (non) work, the epiphany came....

And suddenly there was the answer to the HUGE problem! I found three scenes in my finished manuscript where I could address it, and reworked the ending to include its fulfillment. Voila. In ten minutes (okay, thirty) the HUGE problem is solved.

Don't look directly at the stars. Sometimes, you need to focus on the surrounding black sky to see their splendor!