Back to the drawing board
Getting unstuck when nothing's working
Dear reader,
I got stuck on outlining my book.
I was bored and dragging my feet through every scene of Act 3 (out of 4). Something was wrong, so I had to take a step back and return to the drawing board to brainstorm.
Through this process, I quickly worked out what the problem was.
The job of Act 3 is to line up the dominoes so that they can come crashing down in Act 4. That part was fine. Dominoes in place. All good. The issue was that the dominoes line up too easily. Everything works out for the protagonist without much in her way.
How I’ve tackled this was to brainstorm 10+ obstacles for each “domino”. Now I’m deciding which ideas I like the most and developing them into scenarios for my plot. I hope this will make Act 3 more engaging.
Meanwhile, I’ve got the My K-Drama Life series refresh on the back burner. It’s on my agenda for this year—new cover art and a Kickstarter campaign for special boxed sets. But I've been procrastinating because I know commissioning the cover and box illustrations is going to be expensive, and I know it's going to be a lot of work when I'd rather be focused on writing my next book.
So the tentative plan is to start gathering inspiration and contacting illustrators for quotes. But I’m not in any rush. Maybe it will happen this year, maybe next. The series still sells well as is, regardless.
Also on the K-drama front, reporting back to say I’ve already binge-watched the entire first season of Dr. Romantic, and I’m mid-way through season 2.
OMG. I love this series!
This was one I had initially avoided because it looked like a hospital romance with Yoo Yeon-seok (whom I don’t particularly like). But I started watching this for Han Suk-kyu, and what a great idea that was. Kim Sabu is such an iconic character. ✨
I like all the medical drama, hospital politics, the quirky cast of characters, and the quaint setting. I could do without the romance (Hospital Playlist has much better romance)—but turns out it’s not romance-centric, despite its name.
Definitely a top 10 K-drama for me.
Feeling somewhat inspired by the recent foray into medical drama, I donated blood for the first time last Friday. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but for a long time I was under the weight threshold or there was no blood drive in a convenient location for me to go to.
But those excuses no longer apply—so I finally did it.
I found the process totally fine…. Until I walked out afterwards. The world started spinning. I couldn’t walk home. I had to go back inside, have more food and drink, and rest longer. Next attempt to leave was fine. I will definitely do it again.
If you haven’t donated blood before, I recommend it. It’s not that scary. Just give yourself a good recovery period afterwards!
-Sara