Puzzled

I was never very good at puzzles.

The 5-10 piece puzzles with the chunky, large pieces, I could handle. But the real, puzzles, the kind with more than twenty-five pieces or heaven forbid those torturous six digit kind were out of my league.

So it's nothing but karmic energy biting me in the ass that:

Princess Bea picked up a puzzle at the Dollar Store yesterday, thrusting it into our cart AND as I'm angsting over Don't Get It Twisted revisions, I realize that it's nothing more than a puzzle waiting to be solved.

Bea's twenty-five piece, Clifford puzzle wasn't a head scratcher by any stretch of the imagination. No doubt, it took ten minutes too long to put together, especially since me and the Princesses were working as a team - but, it was a relative breeze.

I'm not lying when I say, had it been double the size, I would have left the girls to do it without me.

Puzzles aren't my thing.

So why has God tortured me by making the re-working of Drama's sequel a literary puzzle?

I don't mean, there are mysteries to unlock. I mean, there's a major story re-write required and working it within the existing chapters has me stumped.

The worst part?

I can see where it should go. I can see how the story line should play out. But when I sit down to write it, I get all locked down by backstory.

I keep flipping the pieces, looking at them from different angles. But I can't meld it together.

I know what you're thinking - I'm afraid to let go of some of the existing text. But you're wrong! I've already had the talk with myself about giving the old heave ho to some of the original text. I'm not afraid to cut.

Seriously.

I wrote Twisted immediately after writing So Not The Drama, three years ago. Needless to say, Drama went through significant changes over time. So, of course, there are elements of Twisted that must be lopped off, cut down, spruced up and mended back together.

I've handwritten notes.

I've started a new document with only new elements.

I've reviewed the existing text to see what can stay.

I've cut and pasted.

And yet, I can't get them to come together to save my blessed soul.

It's exactly like when you're staring at a puzzle and feel you know what piece goes there but can't find it amid the rest of the pieces...the right fit is at the tip of my fingers. I can feel it.

Damn, I hate puzzles!