I'm working on a book and it's not going great. I'm sure you've experience something similar. Not necessarily a book but you have an inspiration or a great idea and you jump right in; only to stumble.
The work in progress is book three of a paranormal trilogy. Books one and two went well. Book one is done and book two is percolating before I go back to rewrite it. (I find it helps to put the first draft away for a month or two before going back through to rewrite it.)
Book three I know how I want to start and I know how I want to finish but that pesky middle is thwarting me.
I'll get through it but in the mean time, it is going to drive me a little crazy. I'm spending more time staring at the keyboard than I am actually typing on it. (Did you know my letter E is worn off my laptop?)
I think part of the problem is it is the end of a trilogy and that means (to me anyway) that it should be big. It should be the epic finale. (In my head, finale is in a reverberating voice like a wrestling announcer.) This is a lot of pressure to put on one poor little manuscript. I'm asking it to epic and it's only the first draft. It's like asking it to be in a beauty contest when it just rolled out of bed, hungover and with a sleep crease and bed hair. I'm asking it to be perfect when it has not even been written.
I need to ease off and take some pressure off it. I need to distract that little critic inside my head long enough to get words on the screen. I need to be okay with it not being good on the very first draft. But I'm not.
I want it to be good. I want it to make sense and entertain and just be right. I want the words to flow and the sooner I accept that some times they don't, the sooner I'll probably feel better. In the meantime, please excuse me because I have a manuscript to stare at.