I’m feeling great. Charged through a truly revolting number of words today and passed the halfway point on the story. It’s taking shape a little differently than I expected, but I like what I’m getting. I’ll have to do a lot of building back once the first draft is done. I can already see one point where I’ll need another scene and spots where the development is thin.
But on the plus side, I managed to write the sex scenes (two! which doubles my lifetime sex scene count) without breaking out in hives or staring at the blank page in terror. Uh, yeah, obviously, I’m still having trouble coping with sex scenes. But I seem to have come up with a strategy for them. The thing that always makes me crazy (apart from the actual describing sex part) is that my usual scenes are on the short side, then I get this monstrosity of a sex scene, twice as long as anything else in the story. So this time, I broke it up with future scenes, as though it is being remembered at a later time. A sort of fevered daydream that actually happened. It gives me the space to write the scene properly, but saves me from fifteen pages of continuous, awkward sex.
I still have a few scenes to get done today. I would have finished sooner, but the winter Olympics coverage is very distracting. Once one skier crashes, it becomes impossible to look away. They all seem to be on the verge of smashing to little bits at any moment. It’s riveting, but I find I miss the comparatively sedate days of gymnastics and beach volleyball.
JOYCE SULLY :: Why Not Wonder 