So here's the position I'm in right now. I'm a beginner writer. I've written... god knows how many short stories, had a few published, one aborted novel (and to invoke His name again, I hope to god no one ever finds its tracks), half a YA novel (temporarily shelved, not abandoned), and a full novel. That i put to one side as it was missing a certain something, and that, i recognised in a rare moment of clarity, was context. It needed its own world to be set it.So, I set about novel number two.And this si where I've stalled. 40,000 words in, and I'm struggling. I've written another 5 short stories this past month, and that's because I'me trying to avoid the elephant in the room that is the problem novel.I'd admitted to myself there were two problems to it, that I was just hitting mental block after mental block. Nothing huge, just feelings of setting and the purpose of specific dialogue, and then, like it was meant to be, i came across this. A piece from the lovely Rachel Aaron on how she increased her daily word count from 2 to 10 thousand words. It was like she was speaking to me (or at least 33% of me, the 'timing' section I know is beyond my ability to organise myself) on planning scenes and cutting out the bits you don't enjoy writing. I mean, it is so obvious, a real 'trees for the forest for the bark' moment. Why should anyone read them if I didn't even want to write them.I'm seriously questioning if I've overstretched myself with this novel. I still don't know how its supposed to end, god knows how many characters and three main viewpoints across a continental-wide war half based on actual events....but 40,000 words is too many to throw away. I'll be taking time to remap out what I'm writing and I will damn well finish this gosh darn book!And when I do I'm going to email Rachel and thank her. You see if I don't.Michael