I am having a hard time shifting gears the last few weeks. College professor by day and writer/blogger by night has usually been an ok transition but lately when I sit down at night, at the start of what I like to call my second shift, I stare at the screen trying to will myself to be creative and work on my next fiction novel but I do nothing but simply stare at the screen. I have story lines and ideas in my head but they are all jumbled and I have been having difficulty putting together enough cohesiveness to get the words out the way they need to be. I normally have been able to write from my idea outline and then continue a process of working my way from start to finish or middle to finish, adding additional story lines, details, more flair and dialogue until I get a finished product. This time it has been much different. I did complete the first rough draft the way I just explained but since then have just had starts and stops where I will start a new document and write a secondary story line based on one idea. Not even sure where it will fit into the story. So I have a 30,000-word rough, rough draft and a bunch of couple thousand word “extras.” And I am still having a hard time wrapping my brain around putting them together. It’s making me doubt the story although I do realize that is not the answer but rather a by-product of my frustration. I keep hoping as I write these “extras” I will eventually come to the A-HA! Moment and know exactly how it is all suppose to fit. So until then, fingers crossed.

Any advice?

Laina