Novel Progress

My first novel was handwritten in two of these, but my latest is in word processor format.

I continue work on a second novel. The first sits on the shelf where I last touched it over a year ago - finished in 2011, abandoned during rewrite. I wrote a few thousand words on my latest several months ago and then ran into the conundrum that my protagonist is the least interesting character.

That's a problem. Not an "issue," or "challenge." I don't like to mince words when something goes seriously wrong.

I've been stuck with writer's block for a while now, trying to figure out what to do about it. Occasionally I have edited a few sentences or added a couple of paragraphs without getting to a point I can move forward. The cause was a combination of procrastination and hesitance to throw out the characterization already written. Of course, I really had to throw out the characterization. Fortunately, I have a solution, or at least an approach.

I admit it wasn't an epiphany, but rather a comment on Twitter that gave me the idea. The comment referred to characterization in Hitchcock movies, and suddenly I realized the value of reading a lot of other author's works to inform your own writing. This is advised by Stephen King, among others, and this is probably the first time I've seen the link directly.

I'm always willing to steal an idea, as long as it is a good one.