First choices

[stgulik]

Why is the human mind so contrary? When I signed up for the sshg_promptfest, I asked for a first-choice and second-choice prompt. Later that day, something opened up in me and I quickly knocked out a fairly competent draft of my second-choice prompt. Now I've been assigned a prompt, and it's the prompt I put down as my first choice .............. aaaaand I'm blocked. Believe me, I'm stoked at the prompt. It's a great prompt! But I'm blocked. I don't know where to start.

Anyone want to chat? I can actually discuss it offline with anyone who's not the promptor, so hey.

Comments

[smallbrownfrog.livejournal.com]

Have you checked to see if the second choice prompt is still available? Just maybe...

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Sweetie, if I can be of any assistance, call on me. You know I love discussing writing with you. You can do this. You will do this. Right now, all you are feeling is pressure, which can block your Muse. You have already written a lovely fic based on your second choice, so the first one is pure lagniappe. Think of it as dessert; you've already prepared the first course, dessert is a bit more fiddly, but ultimately will come together well, and people will enjoy it because it's more than they expected.

[squibstress.livejournal.com]

This sounds very familiar. My traditional way of approaching a fest assignment is to write a few thousand words right off the bat. Then, usually a week or two before the thing is due, I decide I hate them all and start over again.

All I can say is that writer's block is like childbirth: the only out of it is to push through it. It may be painful, but at the end of the first draft, you'll have something that seems like a gooey mess but will ultimately clean up nicely and be adorable.