Glare report, 9/23/04: Trying to get a handle on Jack

[pegkerr]

Words: 175
Stopping because: I am stuck and I am literally nodding off over the keyboard
Notes: Still stuck trying to write a scene I trying to write yesterday, where Jack gets introduced to Ingrid (at the farmer's market) and I think, okay now, here's where he pulls out the charm but I can't think of a single thing for him to do that is calculated to charm a six-year old. Again, this is that discomfort about Jack: I am at a total loss to think of how he reacts to anything, and I don't know how to write a guy who is a trickster who oozes charm. I said yesterday that I don't know how to write a simple declarative sentence because I got to the point where Solvieg hears him behind her and turns to him and--and what, for heavens sake? I put him on the stage and he is a mute puppet who refuses to say anything. Do I have to totally rethink my perception of who/what he is? How?

Will try to read some more of that book on writers' block.

Mood: Still frustrated, but with a twinge of pride that yes, I did sit down and glare at it again, despite how crappy I think it is. Note please that for months that I have thought is crappy and so have avoided doing anything on it. Now, I have had a shift in my emphasis and so I sit down every night and contemplate how crappy it is, but I'm actively trying to do something about it! This is progress, people!

Please be aware that my reports will probably include quite a bit of whingeing for awhile until I get this beast moving again. You have been warned. But at least I'm trying!

Comments

[naomikritzer]

Also, I would say, good tricksters are a pain in the ass to write. At least, they are for me, too. The depressing fact is that it's not much fun to get tricked. (By the same token, "thieves" in fantasy novels are often portrayed as fun and cute. I've had stuff stolen from me, and did not think this was a fun, cute sort of thing to have happen.) Anyway, the solution I used recently (I wrote a trickster story a few months ago) was to provide the trickster with a series of deserving victims, because it's only fun to watch mean tricks played on someone who genuinely deserves it. But it's STILL hard to come up with clever, funny, interesting-to-read-about tricks for the trickster to use. I wound up googling con men and reading about a bunch of different classic cons. That helped, though even there, 9/10ths of the cons were pretty boring, along the lines of, "Steal checks out of someone's mailbox and write a bunch of bad checks."

Anyway, my point here is, you're writing something hard, so don't beat yourself up because you're finding it hard.