How To Find Inspiration

After all of my pontificating as of late about the fine art of writing (yes, pontificating is my word du jour) I find myself in the unenviable situation of desperately seeking inspiration. I've been sick the past few days with a nasty cold (thanks a lot you stupid groundhog) and haven't even opened up my laptop since the weekend.

Until today.

At which point, I found myself staring blankly at a half-finished chapter thinking, "Now, how in the hell am I going to finish THIS?"

Apparently the gears of the machine are a little rusty. Now I have to figure out what type of oil to apply to get things running smoothly again. Once upon a time, I would have just switched projects. Usually moving from one story to another enables me to jar the muse off her corncob ( and NO I won't say where that corncob is) and my creativity starts to flow again. Today, for some reason, that isn't working. Therefore, I find myself following my own advice and blogging to see if anything starts to work.

The problems I face in different types of fiction are completely different. It's not uncommon for me to insert a sort of stream-of-consciousness scene into a stagnant story just to see where the characters take me. This works fairly well for mainstream fantasy work--and occasionally I even leave the scene in. That sort of soul-searching is a very human trait, and one that I beleive has a place in fiction. The downside of that tendency can be found in writing erotica novellas.

Anyone who reads my erotica knows that my novellas are actually a complete book--intended to be read consecutively with no break in the action. Anyone in my writing crit group can tell you that I don't write *short.* Keeping to 30k is a chore for me. As a matter of fact, book three of the Shequanti is starting to look like a book three and a book four if I don't rein it in. The problem I'm running into is a plot snag that JUST....WON'T......RESOLVE.....

Damnit!

I see one way to resolve it--but that would definitely MAKE a fourth book necessary. It is obviously very easy for me to write myself into a corner. This time I may have written myself down the hall.

*sigh*

Oh, well. Back to the grind. If you ever wondered why this blog is called "Elf Killing and other Hobbies" now you know the answer.

Darn those Elves anyway.