Back in the saddle

I've been off writing for two weeks, and not like the usual break where I don't actually type but I still think about my story. This time I didn't write, didn't think, didn't do NOTHIN' writing related.

So by the time I got back to my story yesterday, I was pretty out of practice. I eeked out one terrible page.

This is the time when giving myself permission to suck is most important. That page yesterday was indeed terrible, but I know that I'll get my groove back, and on my first rewrite I'll see how to fix that problem. So I just wrote it, knowing I could fix it eventually. That's tough to do - leave the garbage on the page - but it must be done.

Today I started to suck again with the scene I was working, but I felt pretty confident about the next scene. Tonally, what I was writing just didn't match the rest of the script, so I just made a note about what goes there - running through woods  - and moved on to the scene I DID know - my characters climbing up a tree. This restored my confidence a bit.

I think the scenes I don't feel good about are a problem because I don't yet have a feeling for the chemistry between my leads. I need to take the scenes that are all about the plot and build the chemistry there so I can go back and inject into the "filler scenes" that involve characters moving from one place to the next. That moment when they're running is going to rely on that chemistry. It doesn't work until I figure it out. So I put in a placeholder until I do.

Sometimes it's best just to skip over the stuff that sucks so you can feel good about yourself.