I Lost My Mojo

SPOILER ALERT - If you have not read Adventures in Anxiety, chapter 28, Dream Come True, this blog contains spoilers.

Before I go there, I lost my mojo. I have written nothing significant in nearly three weeks. I'm going over the AA chapters as I schedule them, finding slight errors, and cleaning up the odd mistakes that AI spellcheckers miss. A few readers have flagged minor issues. It's usually a 'wrong word' problem, not a misspelling.

Signing versus singing was one. Swear versus sweat another, as well as brake and broke. The AI misses them and other things. I'm checking my imperfect work with imperfect technology. AI is supposed to be learning. It's flunking badly.

Right after my last blog post, I stopped writing. I think the seven-month rewrite wore me down and I was sick of Joe's fucking drama. You ain't seen nothing yet. I took a break and did some research for a future Sunset Private Eyes case. Other than that, I maintain my STTS publishing schedule and polish upcoming chapters. I feel like a janitor, fixing and cleaning.

---- DREAM COME TRUE ----

Joe's chance encounter with Barbara Nichols was written two years ago. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go there. It felt like a bad trope. I'm not against tropes, my writing has many, but when it's an obviously cliched plot line, you must do it well. 

Of course, I wanted Joe and Dr. Nichols to have an intimate dream come true hook up, but where in the timeline should I put this emotional experience? When I first wrote the Wickenden Pub scene, Joe had just returned from South America. Later, as I played with this idea, I decided 26 was too young. I wanted Joe to be a more accomplished man. Once I pushed it back to him in his thirties, I just needed the perfect time in his life.

Joe's dark side and don't give a fuck attitude at this time, needed an opposing presence in his life to keep him from going full dark. Also, Joe doesn't have a close enough friend he can truly trust and confide in. He needs that now, and who better than Dr Nichols could provide that?

I mixed the physical sex with the deep emotional connection, their history, and a dose of nostalgia. I think I did okay. I leaned on the sexy talk over the erotic narrative. I prefer pillow talk over sex scenes and try to balance that.

I wonder if I'm jumping the shark with the number of women in Joe's life. I pump the brakes on his love life a few times. Then there are these periods of hedonistic debauchery and emotional manipulation that make me cringe a tiny bit. I'll pump the brakes again. There will always be women in Joe's orbit, and most will slip away.

Barbara and Joe's relationship will blossom and be one more bag of emotions and logistics Joe must manage in his bi-coastal love life. He will think and scheme and do what he must to get what he wants.

This is the most new writing I've done in weeks. I've been playing a lot more guitar. I'm also a shitty harmonica player. I think my partner would like me to go back to writing. I'm hoping this sparks a rally.