Crabs and Writers Block

Today was one of those days that is most difficult for me. It's a day when the stress of working and writing both as full time jobs starts getting to me, my word count starts dropping a bit and then it starts actually getting hard.

In particular, I had a killer attack of writers block. It was stupid. I knew what I needed to write (a scene involving them setting up camp and not finding the clue of awesomeness they needed), but I couldn't write it. My first 400-800 words were all tell and no show, my next 400 were tired and staring around bleary eyed while my mind figured out the problem and shared it with me. 

That problem was that despite knowing the scene that fit in there, I didn't actually know what the purpose behind the scene was. There was no goal, no conflict, no nothing. It was two people setting up a camp-site, describing the landscape and not arguing. That isn't a scene. That is a bone dry factual account. 

Unfortunately, as is usually the case, I had to figure out what the scene was about. I almost gave it up as a lost cause when I finally figured it out. And oh my was it a stupid thing that set me writing again. 

CRABS. 

Yep, it was crabs got me writing again. Little ugly brown crabs that walk sideways and have pincers that look more like shovels than weapons, but are still as sharp as a dull pair of scissors. I don't even know if the little guys exist (its a fantasy and a rough draft, I'll figure out that part later). 

I now know what the next chapter includes, how the crabs and the landscape play into it and what they end up doing during it. I will have to rewrite today's chapter but that will be for later, for a time after Nanowrimo is over. In the meantime, just remember, sometimes it is the stupidest of little things that will get your plot moving again if you are stuck.

Like crabs.