My Writing Journey: "The Ghost of Forsyth Academy", Part 3

So I feel like I've hit a bit of a writing slump, which coincides very well with the reading slump I've been in. I fixed the reading slump (I hope) by reading Guards! Guards! (great book) but unfortunately, a writing slump isn't quite as easy to snap out of on account of you actually have to do work to get out of a writing slump, as opposed to reading something easy to snap out of a reading slump.

I think part of the reason I'm in a writing slump right now is because I just finished setting up for one of the high-tension, high-drama, VIPP (Very Important Plot Point) moments of the book (other reasons include crazy stress at work, crazy stress relating to AI detector stuff). But back to my VIPP moment that's stumping me: I want to write this moment well, I know how important it is, but I can't think of a great way to frame it. In fact, besides the big, important thing - Ella sneaks into library after dark, finds a huge clue, nearly gets caught by the murderer - I have no clue what happens in this scene. I don't know if it happens over one night or multiple nights, I don't know if Charlie joins her, I don't know if Mr. Axson should be involved, I don't know anything. Contrary to what some people may believe, knowing the general what-happens isn't enough for a novel. You gotta know at least some of the details, too.

The good part of it is, I'm only 6k words away from my initial word count goal of 50k. The way the story's going, I'm pretty sure I'll need more than 6k words to wrap it up, so length-wise I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Editing-wise...let's just say that given some of the plot holes I've noticed while writing, I'm not particularly looking forward to the editing stage right now. What I'm reminding myself of is that once I've finished the first draft, I can print it out, put it in a binder, shove it into a drawer, and not worry about it for a little while. And yes, I'm already looking forward to the projects I'll take up after I've done that, which is...getting ahead of myself a little. But oh well, if it inspires me to finish this draft faster, so be it.