An Advent Calendar Surprise

I've been participating in friend's Advent Reflections blog (...make the rougher places plain). It's been nice to be able to both purposefully take the time to reflect, and to compose the reflections into written word during this season of Advent. It's a good practice I hope to repeat again. But full disclosure here, I've been neglecting the writing I'm supposed to be doing, the editing and needed new writing for my WIP.

The trouble is, I've been stuck on a comment left for me by one of the judges in the Hook Me contest, which echoed something another person in-the-writing-know said. What does my MC want? It's easy enough to identify with her. Her problem is palpable and makes her a compassionate character. And her challenge is clear. But how to resolve it? I've been praying, and asking my MC (What do you want, Beverly? How are you going to get what you want?), and I haven't found an answer. Hence, the procrastination and long pause between November's edits and now.

But today, feeling inspired by the texts for today's Advent reading, I found my answer- my resolution. And, like Advent and Naomi's story, it involves a baby- a baby that was already part of the story. It's not THE baby (the one taken from my MC) but another one, later in the book, and it's the perfect method for filling in the gap in my MC's heart. I'm excited about it, and feeling a little dumb for not seeing it before.

It's like a literary Advent calendar. Every day, I've been going along opening doors and windows and somedays the prize is okay, sometimes it's great, and other days it's forgetable. But inside today's window was the prize I'd been hoping to find- though I had no idea what it'd look like.

I offer this as an encouragment. Maybe the polish on the finished 50K words in November has gone dull. Maybe you've had a WIP sitting in your own desk (or laptop) for some time with your own ending unresolved. Did you think you were wasting your time writing about other things in the meantime? Because your answer, your new motivation, might be hiding inside the very thing you've been using to distract yourself.

I want to know, have you found an answer to a WIP's problem in an unlikely way? I'm guessing this won't be the the last time my WIP gets stuck. Share with me the ways you get unstuck.


p.s. the picture link is to the SERRV website. It's a fair trade company that sells, yes, DIVINE chocolate-- and what's more appropriate for an Advent calendar than divine chocolate? This is not a paid endorsement. I just happen to support fair trade, and in particular SERRV and their DIVINE chocolate.