Back On Track

My poor daughter has had a terrible time with the extraction of her wisdom teeth.  Aside from the pain she is feeling, this is her first experience with pain killers and it isn’t a good one.  They make her sick.  So she has been in bed for nearly six days in pain and with a nauseous stomach.  She has eaten some soft foods but not a lot.  While we try to keep her fluids high, she just wants to be left alone.  Add to all this that she is my daughter who is allergic to wheat and our options become somewhat limited.  I knew the extraction would be painful but I didn’t realize just how much it would trouble her.  She’s back at school today and I can only hope she’s feeling better.  On to books!  I have been working on the fourth book, “Repercussions Abound” and had one of those sections between big plot points that I hate.  I like to think of jumping from one major event to another when I’m telling the story to other people but it doesn’t work that way.  You need to lay the groundwork and fill the backstory first.  Then there are always new characters that need to be introduced so they can be referenced later.  I would not go so far as to say I hate this part but it is certainly not my favorite.  It is, after all, still creating.  I just tend to drag my feet a little when writing it because it’s not as exciting.  It took a concerted effort to put that section of the book together and I finally have.  In looking back, it came out rather well and conveyed the points I wanted to make.  Then I had an unexpected problem.  I had spent so much time configuring the in-between section that the big action piece I was so looking forward to had become jumbled in my mind.  It was like a puzzle that had been put together completely and then someone came and smashed it back into pieces.  I fumbled through the bits, trying to recall how I wanted them to fit.  Whenever I did it, however, it seemed I kept leaving out pieces.  I went back to my story board but I had had this planned out for so long that the details were glossed over.  I was frustrated.  Here was a great part of the story and I was in danger of getting it wrong.  Now this is not a religious piece or attempt to persuade but I went to church on Sunday.  As usual when I’m stumped, I blocked out much of what going on and used the silence to concentrate.   It was like a tap had been opened and the story came flowing out of me in the right order.  There were even a few new wrinkles I hadn’t considered that came along for the ride.  Now I am ready to write my scene.  Credit the church or the silence or my time without distractions but everything is back on track.