Writer's Block

Hello again,

Six months later...yes, it's been a long time since the last post. I have no one to blame but myself - and writer's block. Unfortunately, it's true. I've tried to continue writing several times since the new year started, and each time I find myself staring at the screen, unable to decipher the next scenes in the current work.

Apxlus is still there, but there is something darker lurking beneath the surface. Every time I scribble notes about him, darkness pervades and the tentative scene becomes one of violence and death. It could be just a fad for me personally; I'm not sure. But Apxlus is troubled, to say the least. Reading the first novel again, I think he came across as distressed regarding the situation that he found himself in. I'm not sure that I was able to capture the feeling that filled him. My failure as a writer, for sure. But the foreboding sense of doom that seems attached to his character whenever I even think about writing with him in the scene doesn't want to go away. Six months later, and it's still there.

I'm perplexed as to what to do with this character. Without a doubt his is one of the single biggest characters out of the first novel. With Angelina Pollard killed off, and Marshall Tennison leaning towards a darker ending, common sense would indicate that this story needs a hero. It needs someone that can lead the Shalothans past the Fe-Ruqians, past the false god, past their own dark history. But the more that I try to write with Apxlus as a center point, it's becoming clearer that he may not be that hero.

Has he done heroic deeds? Debatable. He was a leader, although almost by default. He was reluctant to believe what he was seeing, which would tend to lend itself towards being the one that sees past the deception. But does he really see? That's the question that has to be answered. Does he really see past it, or is he merely having his vision distorted to the point that his image of what is happening is so skewed from reality that he is unable to cope or prevent the events that are destined to occur.

Which leaves us where? Back at the same point, but with a different direction in which to follow. Where does that leave Reaz Apxlus? Does he remain a fixture within the story, or does he fade away as others (Secael, Athes) are developed? Is you read writers' websites, killing off your hero early on is considered writer's suicide. I don't know if there is a nobler option for Apxlus at this point. The question is distilled to merely 'how?'.

Apxlus, what are you going to do?