Holly Lisle has begun her How to Think Sideways walk-through, and I’m amazed at how much value she is adding to the course. By watching Holly work through the process, I’m finally beginning to grasp the subtleties of her techniques.
The first time I finished Lesson 1, SAFE and PERFECT were the obvious enemies on the field. Sixty thousand words later, there are just a few stragglers of the SAFE and PERFECT armies left fighting. In doing Lesson 1 again with the new worksheets, this time I discovered my mid-book paralysis could largely be attributed to VICTIM and FEEL – the two barriers I never thought would be an issue for me. But with a little bit of mind mapping and brainstorming, the reasons emerged on the page.
Along with something else. When I had the first 12,000 words of my manuscript critiqued, Josh asked me to consider what genre I was writing. At the time, I thought mythic fantasy with a side serve of paranormal romance. The discovery of what lay behind VICTIM and FEEL has left me with a certainty – my tale is a romance. Holly’s techniques to help me to break through the why-I’m-not-writing-barrier provided insight to the deeper, romance-oriented themes of my story – and the reasons I really want to write this book.
I’ll need to cut some scenes and beef up some others, but there is no question – the story I want to write is simply a love story. The setting and the tropes might remain mythic or paranormal, but this is just boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl and they live happily every after.
Well done with the break through. I look forwarding to reading your novel when you have made the changes.
I agree that the walkthrough is fantastic, especially watching Holly work through the problems of other writers’ stories.
Hiya, how’s it going? Keeping yourself busy with lots of writing?