Meredith Mansfield, Author

. . . at least for a while.

I can be stubborn.  Ask anybody who knows me.  A former boss once compared me to the Energizer Bunny.  With me, he had to be careful what he pointed me at because I would keep going until I got there, no matter what was in the way.  Sometimes, that’s not a good thing.  Sometimes, you need to step back, look at the problem again, and try a different approach.  I didn’t really learn that until I became a caregiver for my mother (who has Alzheimer’s disease, if you haven’t checked out my About Me page).

Well, it can happen with a story, too.  Sometimes, like BLOOD WILL TELL, a story just flows out like turning on a tap.  Sometimes, it feels like you’re carving every letter into granite.  Most times, of course, it’s somewhere in between.  But when it’s like carving the story into stone, it’s probably a sign that something is wrong.

My (late) current project, SEVEN STARS, seemed to be going well until right around 40,000 words.  It was never the roller coaster ride writing BLOOD WILL TELL was, but it was about normal.  I knew the characters.  I knew where the story was going.  And right about that half-way mark or so, I hit a wall.  I had to fight for every paragraph.  It was a rare scene that I could write in one sitting.  It just wasn’t working. 

I took a break.  I worked on the query and synopsis for BLOOD WILL TEL.  I did a few more critiques than average for other writers.  But it’s just not working.  And finally, even I have to admit it.  Something is wrong.  Maybe I haven’t spent enough time on world-building.  Maybe I chose the wrong character as the protagonist.  Maybe the story just stinks.  The answer is the same, either way.  I have to shove this one into a drawer for a while until I have some distance from it, so I can see what the problem is.