Don´t Stop Because the Words Won´t Flow

I have just put the finishing touches on a new 5 k short story that will form part of an exciting series of projects that my publishers are working on. Without giving too much away we are looking at one story written as a collaboration with other authors within the J Ellington Ashton group. Titled 666:(TBA) it promises to be something different, fresh and fun.

This project fought me at every step of the way. The character, his background, personality and reasons for being how he is just refused to open up to me. It took me several attempts, and three different character plans before I finally settled on the right form. Even then, the process was an abrasive one. I love the story concept, and I love what I created for my part of it, but man, was it ever the hardest thing I have written.

At the same time, I loved it. It fought me, and I had to fight back. I could have laid down and just let it go, or swapped for an easier character, something generic. I didn’t want to do that. So I sat down every day, I typed and typed, forcing sentences onto the page. Even when everything told me that it was going nowhere. Walls and mental blocks lurked around every paragraph indentation.

Eventually however, it got easier. The story started to tell itself, the character warmed to me and before I knew it I had 4500 words written in two days and the intro was done.

It just goes to show that we should never back away from a challenge. Just because the words don’t want to flow for us, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep putting them down on the page.