Writer's Block

So... my intense evasion of posting regularly for the past month has come from the fact I'd RATHER be making excellent progress on writing my novel (no offense my awesome Blogger Friends--it does take a long while to just catch up with what all of YOU are doing, much less tell you what I've lamely not been up to). I've had this insane writer's block that I thought was totally over last weekend when I wrote a whopping 12 pages on my novel in one sitting (that's a lot for me, FYI), adding a very crucial scene that is pivotal to the rest of the book, as well as the starting point of my next novel--a spin off novel that tells the main character's brother's story (got that?). So I was feeling pretty good about the progress I had made after not touching the novel for almost three months and then having this freak writer's block streak...

Now I'm back to the blank brick wall. Tell me... when a Creative Writing College Professor reads the first 250 pages of your novel and tells you that it is close to publishable, and probably ready to submit to a publisher, you feel great, right? Quickly sending over the rest of the novel, the climax and the ending, etc. you're probably hoping for further, actually complete approval of your work. Right? Well... I got a, "I wasn't as impressed with the ending as I was with the first part you sent me" kind of comment. Frustrating for sure. I totally see the reasoning behind it though, taking a step back and realizing that of course the ending was slapped together faster than the rest of the book because I'd probably gone through the first 250 pages at least three or four times by the time I got my sudden but momentary (supposed) stroke of brilliance and wrote the climax and ending.

So that leaves me right here... trying to imagine a DIFFERENT ending, a different way to resolve everything, a different mix of events that would lead up to this different ending. It's getting a little overwhelming thinking about all the changes I've got to do here to make this a BETTER book than what it is.

I think I'm having commitment issues with this plot line you guys. I have already started scheming on a completely different novel, but I know if I jump into another project and set this one on the back self for a while until brilliance strikes me, I'll most likely end up with the very same problems with the next project as I had with this one.

Tangent time... indulge me. I started writing this book from A DREAM I had one night. That seems to be the main way I come up with my ideas for stories... one scene happens in a random dream one night, and I start writing, making the rest of the book follow that one scene, that particular circumstance. As it happened, this novel stemmed from a dream I had about a young woman, staggering down the street all beat up and broken, and she FINALLY finds a place she thinks will be safe--a dark-windowed house with a broken porch light, dogs barking in the distance, deserted street, etc. The person she thinks will be there to help her doesn't answer the door though... someone else is there instead. That's all the dream was. Curious yet? Probably not. But that's the tiny little snippets of dreams that I have that turn into nearly 300 page novels.

It's a lot easier to write about things I've actually experienced. Good luck to me with my next novel... the point of view is from a MAN'S perspective! Holy crap... what am I thinking? I've never been a guy before--of course. *shaking head* Beware to all my male friends and family... if I suddenly ask you a "How would you respond if you were in this situation?" or "What would you do if...?" question... you'll know it's purely research for my insane quest to write a novel about something I know nothing about.