Or, maybe not

Seems like the week before last was the best of times followed by the worst of times. Not worst. I've had worse. It's still a let-down.

Getting the numbers out of the way, I wrote 3 days for a total of 9.5 hours and 2,288 words. For those of you keeping score at home, that's a 51% reduction in word count, half the days, and a little more than 1/3 of the hours from the week before, plus I didn't put anything new online.

The simple reason is I'm first drafting, and the story isn't cooperating. I don't know the world well enough yet. I don't have creatures created or obstacles in place. All I have is a concept: Derrith leaves home to find someone who can help her control her magic. I know she goes south. Last night I had an idea of who her teacher might be which came from, all off things, a picture on Facebook of somebody's foot on a set of child's fairy wings on the ground (not on a child). She'd captioned it "dead fairy." My brain makes me uneasy sometimes. It's probably a good thing I'm the only one who has to live in it.

I spent much of the weekend cranky and out of sorts, and I couldn't put my finger on the problem. I went to church yesterday, and that helped, but I didn't come out of it until I started talking through story issues with Eric. (Thank goodness I'm writing a genre he reads. He wasn't much help when I was writing historicals.) That's when I figured out why I was cranky. The story wasn't playing nice. The previous week, I was re-writing. I had the bones. Apparently, the bones are the hard part for me.

I have figured out a few details which help explain how the world works, but thinking and coming up with ideas isn't quantifiable. The ideas come at random times, and keeping track of every minute I'm thinking about the story would keep me from getting anything done at all.

What have y'all been up to? Have you had a better week, or am I not alone in my belly aching?