“Writing Myself Into A Corner”

It happens more than it should. I come up with a great premise for a picture book (PB) and write the rough draft. Then I let it sit for awhile…hours…days…weeks. It’s now time to dive in and I eagerly do revisions. I do many revisions. As I talked about in my “Revising Revisions” blog post, I do many revisions on my revisions! Even after my critique partners have had their say, probably more than once, I sit and revise some more.

Then a new way of looking at the manuscript and story hits me, so I shuffle things around. Sentences, dialogue, add this, subtract that, add it back in. By this point, I’m stuck in a writing corner. I begin to sweat, not eat, overeat.

Photo by Bich Tran from Pexels

By this point I feel my wonderful PB idea will never make it out into the literary world because I can’t seem to hone it in. My back is up against the wall in the corner. I turn to my characters, but they seem as fickle as I am stuck. Just great! (insert sarcasm) J

In the meantime, I work on revising another PB manuscript or two. Sometimes that flows a little better. I’m beginning to realize maybe it’s not the story at all, but ME on certain days. Okay, that makes me feel a bit better.  Some days are meant for writing others for reading. Glad I got that straight.

Your input: How do you handle writing periods stuck in the corner? I need the advice! lol