Tuesday Ten: Write the West

I'm blogging with my friends the Scandalous Victorians today on this topic.

So mosey on over and set a spell, pard.

Y'all come back now!

Nic

Cowboy Code of Ethics

You can catch me today blogging on this topic with my friends The Scandalous Victorians!

Thanks for stopping by!

TGIF

Nuff said there, and that's about all I could come up with for a TGIF blog!

Off to write some more!

The Black Moment

Do you ever have this dilemma? The closer you get to The Black Moment (I always hear those words in James Earl Jones’ voice, with an echo) the more you start dragging your heels about writing it? For me, it’s a definite case of “I don’t wanna do it!”

We work so hard to get our characters together, to get them to overcome their obstacles, fears, conflicts and flaws and take that shot at happiness… and then we have to rip them apart.

I’m at that point in my WIP, and it’s killing me. My heroine wants so badly to trust, but has been hurt before. She’s not willing to take a chance on or believe in anything—especially not a hero with a reputation like this guy’s. Speaking of my hero. Sigh. He’s done his best to convince her it’s real and that he’s ready to take a chance and settle down. But I know something he doesn’t. When he pours out those feelings to her, she’s going to shoot him down like a scud missile.

And I’m dreading it.

In stories past, I have cried right along with my h/h at this pivotal moment, felt their pain as intensely as if it were my own, and hated myself for ripping them apart. (Note to self: Nic, you seriously need to get a life!) But rip I must, because they haven’t learned yet. Haven’t discovered all that they’re willing to sacrifice in order to be together. Haven’t realized that, despite their differences, being apart is far, far worse than fighting to be together.

As the God of their universe, I know I’ll put them back together when the time is right and they’ve suffered enough, but it will still mean a few days of feeling lousy on my part until we get there. I’ll be walking around feeling blue, sniffling at all those love songs on the radio, and feeling like I’ve lost my best friends. (Yep. Gonna get that life any day now...) But the sooner I dive in and do it, the sooner I’ll get to the scenes where they get back together. So tomorrow morning when writing time comes around again, I’ll go ahead and rip their hearts out.

But I still don’t wanna!!!

So... do you dread writing The Black Moment? Or do you simply take it as it comes, as a necessary part of the story cycle? How do you get past scenes you don't really want to write?