The plight of authors is foreign to those who don't write. For readers who don't notice the mechanics of novels and just want to enjoy the story, it simplifies that enjoyment and/or the disappointment - whatever the case may be. The multitude of readers with different tastes in novels explains the necessity for multiple genres, styles, and lengths of novels.
However, arriving at those stories is often a scintillating journey for the author or a feeling of crash and burn with significant injuries in the process. Some stories are definitely harder to write than others. When I attempted my one and only mystery Race, it felt like the latter for me. When I wrote Then . . . you, it felt like the former. Two very different processes. At the end of both, the results were rewarding and satisfying in different ways.
I'm working on a new one now. Being a seat-of-the pants author, I rarely know where the story is going in the beginning - other than I know it will develop into a love story. But, like the reader, I meet my characters as I go even when I have a "feeling" for who they're going to be or some things they might be going to do. They can be very good at surprising me, often veering significantly off course from where I thought they were headed. In that regard it can be exciting to "see" their experiences.
A problem I'm facing early on in this current WIP is a rather climactic moment for the protagonist, and I'm thinking this is happening way too soon. How am I going to get around this problem? There are some very vague ruminations going on in my mental images, but I don't know if they're "for real". Yet. So, I notice as things similar to this happen in my stories, I hide from them. Yes, I figure out how to waste time or even be productive in other areas. Away from my story. Pretending I have these other things to do. Reassuring myself that it's just a break. Take it. Chill. Relax. You'll figure it out.
That's exactly where my Wednesday Wanderings are taking me today . . .
Father, thank you for every word, every inspiration, every time you help me bring a story to completion. Apart from you, I can do nothing. Nothing. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.