A huge sigh of relief
After competing the square on my Kree story about a dozen times (math teacher humor that sadly even my students wouldn’t get), I have finally completed the first draft. Yay me.
I rode a nice wave of inspiration for about 5500 words, good strong words I was very happy with. Then I started to get into the sticky scientific parts and I ground to a halt. After much forehead slapping, I finally backed up and changed the events of the climax. Another dead end. And another. And another.
Originally the protagonist was supposed to make some grand discovery about theKree, the aliens they shared their moon with (not peacably). That was going to end up being another 4000 words that diverged completely from the original plot. Not a good thing. So I tried a more warlike approach, squaring the protagonist off head-to-head with one of the Kree. That technique didn’t work either.
I eventually discovered that the story really wasn’t about the Kree at all; that was why my climaxes kept falling flat. (What would Freud say about that one?) I needed the story to end the way it began, about people.
There is still a nice little Kree battle. I need to set the story aside before making my editorial run at it. There’s probably a lot to cut out, foreshadowing from the original ending and the like. I know of at least one thing I need to add. I’m saving it for editing. This will end up my first submission to OWW, so I’ll have some crit-for-crit work to do to get people reading it.
I finally came up with a title: “Poison Inside the Walls”. I like that it’s got multiple meanings in the story, but it just doesn’t seem as catchy as my normal titles (“Leech Run”, “Glow Baby”, “Thinking Out Loud”, “Decisions, Decisions!”). Maybe I’m evolving past the catchy? We’ll see.
-Oso
PS- I put Oso Baker in the byline. It may come back out in editing.
Scott W. Baker: Chaos out of Chaos 
It sounds a little like the Kree et al are rebelling against the plot. My characters tend to run away with the story; I never exactly what they’re going to do, even though I generally know how I want it to climax or end (I know that may sound nutty, but I’m not the only person who writes like that).
When I get stuck, I tend to leave the computer and go do some gross motor activity (alone) that lets my mind wander, like taking a shower, walking the dog, or doing chores. Ironically, I’m trying to get my mind off of the story, and the first thing that happens is this cognitive drift where the pieces start coming together or suggesting new avenues.