Writer's block

I really feel terrible about stranding poor Jane and Brice. At their moment of crisis, I've found myself in the middle of my own family crisis.

And really, how do I go on? I decided I can't. Not now.

Already, they've become my friends, though. So I know I will want to revisit them and see what they are up to.

After all, I think Jane is about to fall in love. Brice is about to rediscover her lost self and I was about to write about all my favorite Brandywine Valley places.

Hang on Jane. Hang on Brice. I will be back. I promise.

Besmirching someone (or place's) good name

So here's the problem. I am writing a story about a travel writer (who never travels). So far things have gone well. Chestertown is a lovely town and I've represented it as such in the story. But now we're saying farewell and we'll be back to Chestertown.

The story needs some serious action. We've made good old Jane comfortable, confident even that traveling can be okay -- even if you don't like it one bit.

So I've added a drunk friend (we'll talk about her troubles at another time) and planned all sorts of obstacles, the fun stuff.

But the next town on our journey was to be adorable New Castle, Delaware. I love New Castle. I love the funny, dark Jessop's Tavern where you're sure a pirate with a parrot on his shoulder will come bounding at any moment. Of course, he'd come in a good mood.

I love the little shops -- except the antique shop that smells like used kitty litter and has great stuff but it's all overpriced and the owner is just obnoxious. By the way, you won't find his shop in my Frommer's guide. No publicity is better here than bad publicity. He, however, may appear in my story. His kind can ruin a lovely day of travel research; and this kind is always a surprise to me.

The streets are quaint (it's the right word here) and the history is colonial and the water views are breathtaking, especially if you like to see smokestacks and factory thingies in your view.

I like New Castle and I want to base the next section of my story here. It goes so well with Chestertown and Annapolis, the two previous locations. But I don't want to give the wrong impression -- that it's a stinky place and stay away!!

Would it be better to create a fictitious place based on New Castle?

On the other hand, didn't I just say bad publicity is better than no publicity? And, after all, there's going to be no publicity here. This is just a story among friends, right?

So. New Castle it is!

How to get from here to there. Or transitions

And then...

And then...

When I told a story as a little girl, that's how I kept the action going.

Or how about this.

And then she said...

And then he said...

Or worse,

Next he goes...

and then she goes...

Now of course my friends would hang onto my every word because the story I was telling was gripping!

And they were my friends. They were, of course, quite polite.

Style didn't matter. Just tell them. And they had their story to tell when I got done mine anyway. So hurry up, already!

I find I am doing this as I try to write this new book.

But I'm not on St. John's parking lot at lunch time anymore.

There's got to be a better way to move a story along...change the scenery, change the mood, go to the next idea.

So I looked at how other writers handled it. And I looked at the good ones: Dickens, FSFitzgerald, Dan Brown. And I noticed three things right away: a phrase of time passing (later, the next day, afterwards), movement (drive a car, cross a street, take the streetcar to the French Quarter), and description (see anything Dickens writes to see what I mean) will show time passing. And once time has passed, you can move onto the next idea.

It helps to leave an empty space, put a couple of these (***) or open a new chapter, too.

Boring writing mechanics, I guess, but I didn't really think about them until now.

And I think they might be important.