Friday, I started a blog entry.

I don't know if the SEN will be completed, and I don't know if I really care. I'm willing to forgive a story a lot of flaws, and work through a lot of things to correct them, but "boring" is unforgivable. At the moment, I've decided to stop consciously thinking about it. My un/sub/whatever Freudian term is appropriate/conscious sometimes tosses up useful suggestions if I leave it alone to work on a problem.

Who knows? Inspiration may wash over me at an unexpected moment, solving all my problems and boosting me back into one of those manic moods.

Or, not.

I didn't actually manage the "not thinking about it" part, but I had a brief visit by the Inspiration Elf late yesterday afternoon.

On the one hand, it's good because what I thought of should solve the most major flaw in the story. At least, I hope it will. I re-edited the first 30 pages and it's working so far.

On the other hand, it's bad, because it means some fairly massive re-writes. (Only 120 pages to go....) And some minor, but important re-writes to two scenes.

After I complete those, I have to decide if I really want to write an interesting story or not. If I decide I do, I'll have to reconsider those thematic, structural, character function sorts of things. (Seems to me that if it's not going to be funny or sexy, there's no reason not to keep using it as a Learning Experience and going back to try and add some nuance and layer in something beyond the merely obvious, superficial action.)

On the other hand (I'm very handy these days), I could be sick to death of the fool thing by the time I finish the already-planned rewrites and any of the other seven stories outlined and waiting in the wings might step up and demand attention.

But the really good news is that last week's aggravation seems, in hindsight, to have been me hitting the wall on this project. I'm now past the bitter recriminations over the idea that writing is largely about re-writing and I'm rather enjoying the process.

At least...I was yesterday. The problem with using Sunday as my Writing Day is that I' m still in the mood on Monday. After a day of focusing on the story and a night to sleep on it, my brain is buzzing with ideas, and it's a long time till the next Sunday. Or even, it seems at the moment, until Monday evening.