I am battering my way through the 25-33K doldrums (a feature of my writing process, I suspect), and experiencing a shortage of power. My batteries are flat, and not getting recharged very well. I mean this literally as well as figuratively, as we are in middle of winter, rainy, cloudy and miserable, and as we’re off-grid, and my Lead-acid batteries are now in their 7th year – like me they’re getting old and tired and don’t recharge as well as they should and they’re getting a good recharge from the sun. Plans will have to be made, but it’s expensive. (For the record, I am off grid because it was cheaper than paying for the poles and connection fee, so my payback time was zero months to start with, and also, I get to be independent.) The figurative part is harder.
It’s damned awkward because so much relies on electric power… I even cut my firewood with it, and run the cement mixer and block-cutter off electricity. And yes, this the ‘self-sufficiency’ guy. I suppose it helps my books a little because I actually know first-hand how hard it is to cut wood etc. without power-tools, when writing fantasy or post-apocalyptic tales. It’s all do-able, but it all takes TIME, energy, skills… and a little bit of equipment, because starting with nothing is really, really hard (the book I am doldrum-rolling on has some of this problem – my characters could have nothing (too hard) or everything (too easy) and I need to balance their castaway adventure with plenty of tribulation.
I am trying to fight my way through this patch of the book without falling into my usual ‘ooh! Look! Plot-bunny (It’s, um why I have three books at this point right now – this is the 4th. In the past I have mostly had the strength to just make some notes, but well, with the low personal batteries (it’s been a long haul and not that much ‘sun’) I’ve been weak. It’s how GEOGINA, STORM-DRAGON, and CECILY got written. CLOUD-CASTLES was a finish from 25K of a book I got lured away from by a contract, so I hope I can return to these.
Current plot-bunny gnawing at me is a RETURN OF THE NATIVE. No, I haven’t turned into Thomas Hardy, for which we may all be grateful. Nor has plot anything to do with Hardy or really his story. It’s the product of seeing changing tides in the way people view migrants. I am a migrant, myself (and my kids and family). As legal as can be, done my best to integrate… I’ve read enough history to know that no matter how you try, that isn’t always enough.
I also had some Indian-origin friends and a young German-origin friend. Both reared on their forefathers rather selective and sanitized memories of ‘the old country’. Both ‘went back’. Neither lasted very long. The Indians said the people (including relations) didn’t want them and their westernized ideas back, just their money. The German boy was if anything, sadder. His family had kept German as their home language, and much of the tradition and culture. The only downside he found was… that was the German language and culture of around 1920. The Germans (once again, relatives) struggled to understand him (and vice-versa), and their culture was a million miles from his very regimented and conservative background. He was thoroughly miserable, disappointed in them… but he tried for a number of years, returned – and found his South African culture also had moved.
I can see this repeated with the trends I see. It’s… going to be ‘interesting’ for children (or grandchildren) going back the countries their forefathers came from. Countries they have revered and supported (sometimes financially) but that they no longer fit with. I thought… as a ‘theme’ of a colonist or a soldier being forced (or living his dream, or father’s dream) to go back from space, back to an Earth full to bursting with rules and culture he doesn’t fit into…
Either Earth changes, or he does…
Anyway, plot bunnies aside, my other ‘stimulus’ trick is to try to read something inspiring. I was lucky enough to have Sarah Hoyt send her latest WIP. Alas, this did not inspire me. It just made me depressed, because Sarah does so much of a better job of opening and hooking and scene-setting than I ever can.
So: besides sheer slog… how do you push through the doldrums…?
Mad Genius Club 
5 responses to “Powering along”
My paternal grandparents were English, and emigrated to the US just before, and just after WWI, and in a lot of ways we were raised in their traditions. We three older kids went to spend a summer in England in 1976, and it was a curious experience. We were familiar with a lot of Englishness, it fitted us, sort of – like a winter coat that we hadn’t worn for years – but at the same time, we knew, subconsciously, that we would never be able to step back. We had all become too American.
I slog, and try to work in the subplots, to make certain that those don’t get dropped and left hanging. I’m also in the 50K plod right now. I know the problem, I know the solution. Getting one to link up with the other … Ugh. Trudge, trudge, trudge. Being distracted by tornadic storms with grapefruit-sized hail (both over open country, Thanks Be) doesn’t help.
“…how do you push through the doldrums…?”
I have two techniques I use. A trick I usually don’t use but have for my current book is to write scene ideas down on 3×5 cards. I learned that for a screenwriting class. It helps to remember the essentials. You can mix them around in different orders without getting hung up on having to go from beginning to end. It’s good to keep me from getting stuck about having to write what comes next. That way you can focus on what you really care about in the story. After that the glue that binds them together comes easily, or you find out you can skip a lot of what you thought you had to write.
I have one more trick that’s worked for me when I’m stuck. I got this trick from a Gene Roddenberry interview. Interview your characters. Just write the questions down and then write the answer as the character. Here are a few questions I’ve used.
Describe yourself.
Where did you grow up?
What was your mother like?
How about your father?
What do you want most out of life?
Have you ever been in love?
As you can see the possibilities are infinite. I’ve found myself frequently surprised by the things my characters have told me. My wife and Ray Bradbury used to have their characters come and talk to them. For me, I find I need the prompts to get them to talk, but it works kind of magically. Some of the stuff ends up in the book or story, but some of it just informs me about the background of the character. It makes me really want to tell their story.
My parents switched from Lead-acid to LiFePO for their off-grid power needs. They started with those big lead-acid ones that are about 8″x12″x24″ and weigh 100 or so lbs each.
The LiFePO batteries are much more compact, much lighter, more power dense, and require way less maintenance than lead-acid do.
The downside is they’re about $1000 per battery (though if you buy enough you might be able to get a bulk discount), and you may have to upgrade your inverter/ chargers.
I circle around. Bad habit.
I go on and on about it here
https://writingandreflections.substack.com/p/circle-around-circle-around