I never have writer’s block in the pure sense. Ideas are easy to come by and if I sit down to write, I can always write story, character, scenario, scenes. What slows progress, is feeling my story is going down the wrong path. It means reevaluating, making changes, rewriting. Until all the problems are resolved, it is both painful and pointless to move forward. I have to be patient with the process.
Another problem is research. In a story set on Mars, there is a lot of world-building and speculation to do. For enrichment, I’m reading The Princess of Mars, inspiration for the recent film. It’s a fun tale but it isn’t really helping me research terraforming and Mars settlement scenarios. I could read web articles, non-fiction books and novels about Mars every day for the rest of the summer and I’d never run out of material, just writing time.
If “Ark of the Convenient,” finishes around my approximate goal of 80 000 words, I’m halfway through the rough draft. I also know how it ends. Now, if I could just figure out the details between here and there…
Progress as of 8/03/2012
Hey, Maaja…
My belief is that you should just write out the story you want first. That will get the best story you can out of you, which IS the most important thing you can do.
While writing, you should note down any scenes or moments where your knowledge is lacking. “What are magnetic fields like on Mars?” for instance. After you get done with the story, or chapter, go find the answer to that question. Maybe by recollection or good luck what you wrote fits the truth. Maybe the truth is slightly off. Maybe it’s completely different. Whatever you discover, use it in your rewrites of the section. Your discoveries may even lead you to take the story in more interesting ways.
My two cents.
Thanks for the encouragement, Erick! You can bet I’m watching the Nasa site for Mars updates from Curiosity this month!