Writer Unblocked

I don't believe in writer's block. I am usually loath to tell aspiring writers what to do, other then telling them to write. But the one thing I will tell them, is that if you have writer's block, get out of this line of work.

I have about nine ideas I want to write about right now.

I have noticed that sometimes I'll be working on a scene and I wont know how to end it, or I won't know where to go next. Things grind to a halt. Back in 2003, when I first started work on A Line Through the Desert I decided this meant I shouldn't be writing about the scene I was writing about. The example that comes to mind is a scene where our protagonist, Jake Bloom, was jogging and fantasizing about his girlfriend and future wife, Patricia. I had not idea where to go from there and eventually axed the scene.

This was probably for the best.

I've had a similar scene in Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom (or whatever its called). I should note that the scene is similar in that I don't know where to take it, not in that I have Jake fantasizing about Patricia. For a week I've been wondering if I hadn't taken the scene too far and needed to pare it back. We're talking several thousand words here.  Then I realized all the parts necessary to the scene were all there but just jumbled up. I re-jumbled them and voila, the scene works just fine and says what I want.

On a related update, this little revelation gets Whatever Happened to Jake and Patricia Bloom up to 42,000 words. Sections completed:

-Patricia home in 93-94 while Jake is in Somalia
-Jake in the Army Green to Gold ROTC program
-Jake in Iraq 2008

This book will basically be two sections, Patricia and break from roughly where A Line Through the Desert ends till 2005, and then Jake and Patricia in 2008, stand along.

The next big section to do is Jake in the liberation of Iraq with the 3rd Infantry Division in 2003. He'll be commanding an armored company (almost used the British spelling there) and no, he won't be on Thunder Run.