Creative Disputes

Hello. Today I thought I'd talk about the challenge I'm currently having with my book 'Mark of a Goddess'. I'm have a creative dispute with myself. Actually, I really have creative disputes with no one other than myself. I may give advice, but I don't really care what the final decision is if I'm not the one writing it. That may seem cold, but I don't really have the brain room to worry too much about other people's projects. As for receiving creative advice - it's amazing how little of it I'm actually given.

I'm probably scary ~_^!

Anyway, the next chapter of MoaG isn't ready because of one sentence. One sentence is holding me back. Two words, to be precise. Just two words are holding my leash and not letting me run and prance like a country puppy. How twisted! But, I cannot release the chapter until I figure out how I'm going to handle this problem.

First let me define how a creative dispute arises:
1. The chapter is always already written and usually it's already been beta-read.
2. An inconsistancy has come up that I didn't account for in my original storyboards.
3. If no one ever saw the story, I would never notice it, because normally it's pointed out by my beta reader, my best friend, or someone who's reviewed on fanfiction.net. It's not that they notice that there is a problem, because usually the real problem is in a chapter they haven't seen yet, but they foresee a problem that I just didn't see coming (yet another great reason to release one chapter at a time). I have definitely caught a handfull of mistakes because of one specific reader on ff.net.

In this case it was pointed out by my beta-reader and I haven't been able to think of a solution, even though I've been thinking about it steadily for over a week. Grrrr!

So, I've been trying to remember some of the ways that I've solved these sorts of problems in the past.
1. To think about it.
2. To not think about it.
3. Tell the story to myself out loud. This is a great tool. I figure out so many problems this way. Just as a side note I had no idea what I was going to write for an upcoming chapter of MoaG. I just had one line of instruction to go on, and by explaining that part of the story to myself, I was able to come up with something that really worked.
4. Focus on the deadline and write the solution 2 minutes before releasing. How does that saying go? "Desperation is the mother of invention" or something like that. I totally believe in this. So, if I don't come up with something before hand, I'll force myself to figure something out Wednesday night.

If I really do end up working it out on Wednesday evening - I'm crossing my fingers that whatever I release doesn't suck.