If you're having trouble, just _relax_. It's not like not writing will
endanger someone's life or anything. If worst comes to worst, don't
revise, scrap. If anything I have goes beyond 3 revisions, I scrap the
entire scene and redo from start. My first fanfic, Ryouga and Ukyou,
was originally started in script form. I got to 22K, and saw that it was
starting to fall apart, because either I wasn't suited to script, or
script wasn't suited to the story. So I scrapped the whole thing, and
redid from start in prose.
Also, consider trying something else, another story, as distraction. Look
for inspiration, and not just in other books. Songs, for example,
sometimes contain some incredible prose. Take, for example, the dark
ballad 'Where the Wild Roses Grow', by Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue. A
couple of verses of it:
Nick: On the second day I brought her a flower.
She's more beautiful than any woman I've seen.
I said "Do you know where the wild roses grow,
So sweet and scarlet and free..."
Kylie: On the second day he came with a single red rose.
He said "Give me your lust and your sorrows."
I nodded my head as I lay on the bed.
"If I show you the roses, will you follow?"
Now, if you've heard the rest of the song, those two verses take on
a whole lot more meaning, but that song acts as the muse for a story
I have in my unfinished folder, with *cough* Akane and Kodachi. I
would finish it, if I could get over my Ranma apathy, and whenever I
found a scene hard to do, I'd just listen to the song again(but not
_while_ I'm writing, I don't write with music going). It's the
only song I've ever used while writing any story, but the example is
there:
Stop, go do something else, read a book, listen to a song, read poetry if
you are that way inclined, watch a movie, have a conversation, just go
outside and watch whatever happens. Inspiration can often get you past
the hard bits. Experience is necessary to write well, but not to write
at all. Inspiration is necessary to write something beyond a paragraph
or two, unless you're determined. Your problem seems to be low self esteem.
Write something and send it, even if it's small. Things may snowball from
there.
It's worth a try, at least, no?
************
Mark Doherty - mdoherty@mailbox.uq.edu.au
The Weekly FFML Synopses Lists are at:
http://www.uq.edu.au/~zzhdoher/list.html
My fics are back -
http://www.tass.org/~mdoherty/index.html
"Time grows short, but I remain tall."