Stuck: Writing from a New POV

If you've talked about writing on your blogs in the last couple months, you may have gotten a whiny comment from me about how my writing is not going. I may have mentioned chapter 20. Or I may have said something about "if I ever finish..."

I've been stuck. Since around the beginning of April. And now it's time to get unstuck.

I think my biggest problem is that I know exactly what needs to happen in chapter 20. You read that right. I do know what I need to do. For some reason, that's more freezing than not knowing what's going to happen next.

I took chapters 18 and 19 to my writing group. They had a few suggestions...

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(This is why I have a writing group. They pointed out things that really didn't make sense. Things that had been in the story since the first draft but that no longer belonged in the story that it had become.)

I rewrote chapters 18 and 19. I completely gutted chapter 19 and started over. Those chapters are now stronger. But that means that chapter 20 has to change. In a good way, but still.

So, I cut chapter 20 and went to restart it completely. And couldn't figure out quite how to write it.

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I knew that my main character had to go and explain to the king that she did something that went against his wishes. Then I get to introduce the MC's cousin, who is going to play a significant role in the rest of the story. And to lead into the chapter 21 I already have, the cousin upsets the MC so much that she gets rotten, stinking drunk.

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But it wasn't happening. The cousin wasn't mean enough.

I finally got around to sketching out a chapter. I rearranged scenes. Realized that one chapter is too short to get the MC that drunk, so I'm going to have to insert a new chapter between the dreaded chapter 20 and the already written chapter 21. Doable.

But the cousin... So, it was time to sit down and write out what's going on from her perspective. Why does she hate the MC so much? What's her damage?

Then I had it! I had her voice. I knew what to do...

(And then I caught a cold and needed a few days of downtime...)

Well, it's progress. Of a sort.

How about you? Making any writing progress? (Or are you with me? Stuck, too?)