A Writing Experiment: Dipping Update

I assume, maybe even hope, that I’m experiencing the dip now. That part of each learning curve when things slow down and it feels a lot harder.

I have rewritten the story so many times that if you changed the names then it would be hard to tell that it came from my first version. I added a spread that enhances the story of the main character’s(Leo currently) fear of heights. I changed one of the friends to be new in town so he could be ignorant of Leo’s fear and be a somewhat protagonist. I’m experimenting with using dialogue that my kids would use with their friends and putting jokes in.

All that sounds great, but the roadblocks are hard for me to get out of my mind.

The low may STILL not be low enough. I want it to be lower otherwise it doesn’t feel good enough to put into a book. To be honest, it feels way better than half of the books I find at the library so maybe I’m being too hard on myself.

I feel like I have some standard in my head that I need to reach. I don’t know how it gets set other than maybe comparing it to other books that I really like reading my kids. I would think that the books we own are a better sample of what I’d be competing against for publishing than what I find randomly at the library so maybe it’s a reasonable fair standard I’m holding myself to. We’ll see.

For some reason writing the spread that comes just before the low moment feels harder than anything else so far. I don’t want to write it. I need the characters to have a heartfelt conversation that explains a few points, but it ALSO needs to sound like kids are saying it.

More real talk: Part of the reason this post is getting written is because I can use it to delay having to write that heartfelt convo. The other reason for this post is I’m hoping it will help me process the feelings of being in the dip and being stuck.

I wonder if I could sink into the feeling of being stuck and enjoy it somehow. A side project is trying to feel feelings more. I’ll try it with being stuck.