Middle of the Road in Thought: by Devi Laskar

There are famous writers who end (or ended) each day in the middle of a sentence, so they would know exactly where to pick up the next day. Hemingway was famous for the way he left the sentence hanging overnight. It is a wonderful way to avoid writer’s block.

I wish I knew how to do that, effectively.

I do end each day in the middle of a thought, but it’s usually at a fork in the middle of the road. 🙂  I usually have multiple choices, plus the additional, alluring possibility of going back to the previous chapter and revising it rather than writing new material.

Then there’s the best temptation of all, the one that’s always hanging around the corner of my brain like a drug dealer on the corner: start over. Just throw everything away that you’ve spent years on, and start anew on a blank page.

Lately, my antidote has been to work on an alternative project when I start to see spots with my novel, Shadow Gardens. So, I’ve been tinkering with other piece, a tongue in cheek novella about a harried soccer mom with three kids. But that’s not going well, either. I’m stuck in a rut.

In the Book Writing World, Elizabeth talks about doing things that support our practice of writing. It’s something in between a reward and a bribe – something to keep our momentum going. I know I’m running out of time, there are only a few months between now and the end of the school year when other “real life” commitments will take me away from my books.

I’m not certain there’s enough coffee or chocolate in the world to make me write another sentence after this blog is posted today, but I’m off to look. 🙂

What steps are you taking to support your writing, and keep up the momentum?

Devi Laskar is a founding member of the Book Writing World. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, is a rabid Tar Heel basketball fan and will be reading some of her work on April 9 at the Sacramento Poetry Center in CA.