When Characters Stop Talking To You

(Been a while since I've posted a real blog post. Gotta correct that.)


I had been concentrating most of my attention on my vampire novel, UNDER THE DARK OF THE MOON (formerly BEFORE THE DAWN), as well as two shorter works, "Raven" and "Stranger". I had been working on them almost exclusively, trying to get projects that have been hanging for a while finished before moving on to other projects. All had been going well.

Until recently, that is.

As some may know, I lost my job in August of this year. It was a bit of a mixed blessing; the job sucked in so many ways. Being on unemployment is far less stressful than working for the previous company. I had thought that with more abundant free time, I'd be able to focus on getting the projects finished.

Too bad that hasn't happened.

After nearly two months of being out of work, I've become stuck on all three projects. I find myself in that frustrating position of staring at the pages and not knowing what comes next. I know how each project ends but I don't know how to get to those endings. Part of it could be frustration over not being able to find another job. I have to spend a good chunk of my day sending out applications. It's not conducive to churning out copy.

I can usually go a couple of days without writing. After that, I start getting all nervous and twitchy, like I know I should be doing something but am not able to do it. So I'm going to try something else to get my imagination working again.

There are two projects I had put aside while I was focusing on UNDER THE DARK OF THE MOON, "Raven" and "Stranger". I'm going to focus my attention on these two projects, titled "My Soul to Keep" and "Upon a Far Distant Shore". Both projects are different from what I've written before. The first, "My Soul to Keep", concerns the citizens of a town called Coventry. It's an enclosed habitat, and as far as the six hundred citizens know, it's the entirety of their world. What they don't know is that they're nothing but lab rats in an experiment that been running for centuries. The second, "Upon a Far Distant Shore", concerns a woman who was part of a peacekeeping organization who finds herself in what appears to be an abandoned town. She has no idea where she is or how she got there, and she is unable to call for assistance.

I'm hoping that working on these two projects will help me get back to the first three and get them finished.

We'll see what happens.