a biography and thinking out loud

I'm afraid this blog may be off to a slow and unexciting start but here we are regardless!

Right now I am reading Tesla: Man Out of Time, and while I am the last person you'd find drooling over biographical writing, let alone most anything non-fiction, I have been rather impressed. Generally I can't stand reading works like this because I have a hard time getting into them and I was expecting this book to be especially dull considering the subject matter and my own strong aversion to math and science related topics. However, I'm actually enjoying this read. For one thing, I am honestly learning [which is always a nice feeling] and for another, Cheney does an excellent job of keeping her readers interested and even entertained. Man Out of Time doesn't feel dry and lifeless as some similar works I've attempted, and even some works of fiction I've chanced across have been. Being an typically terrible non-fiction writer myself, I admire Cheney's accomplishment with this book and look forward to finishing it!


In more personally-relevant writing news: I figured out why [one of the reasons at least] I have stalled on my current WIP. It took me ages to realized that I couldn't keep writing because the last scene I'd written, the first major dialogue between my MC and his uncle, didn't fit either character much at all but especially the uncle. I had thrown in topics that never would have been addressed in their first conversation and the way I approached them totally changed the uncle's character. I know that characters can surprise you as you write and I'm working on being more open and comfortable with that during this project but I think, even when a character's traits and behavioral patterns may not be set in stone you can just tell sometimes when something doesn't fit them. So yay for that revelation! Now I just need to sit myself down and see what they actually want to say - having just written that I realized something else. The scene I wrote wasn't just done namby-pamby [that's not a real phrase is it], I was trying to think through all the back story and characters leading up to that moment and I just realized that I didn't write what the uncle would actually have but I did, at least in part, write what he would have wanted to say and ask. Typing out loud does it again ladies and gents. I should do that more often when I'm stuck.

How do you get unstuck from writing blocks? Are you the kind of writer that has to push straight through a story or do you like to jump around as you go?

This week's challenge is to describe a room and the people in it as if you were blind. My own personal challenge will be to get that scene with my MC and his uncle re-written. I'll report back on both on Saturday. Until then, happy writing!