I have been accused (rightfully so) of being unable to suspend my disbelief. I can't say why it is that certain things—like ghosts and the likes—I would stake money on its existence and have personal stories. But when it comes to Sci-fi, I have a hard time wrapping my mind around aspects of it (don't get me started on The Terminator and how I think the "story" pretty much ends the moment Reese goes back to protect Sarah Connor from the terminator--I can't fathom how anything can happen after... it becomes a never-ending cycle... but I digress).

The reason I bring this up is my current project. And some of the reactions I got from my girlfriends. My feelings weren't hurt when I decided to write something a little "out there" for me, and one of the girlfriends scoffed with respectful concern for me. If anything I am considering it a (major) challenge—all I will say on the book right now, it's a time travel. If I can't pull it off I won't have to admit how ambitious I was with it and how far it falls short—I am still in the hopeful, plotting mode. All is good. So far.

I *have* hit one snag. I am trying to figure something out, work through how to convince the main character she's actually travelled backwards. This is a snag because I can't figure out "how" to convince her. My BFF said to just show how things were done "back then". But in my "can't suspend disbelief" mind, everything I can think of is something that could easily be recreated today to try to convince someone—as if nothing had "actually" happened but someone was playing a trick/mind game/etc. Now, I suppose she could end up someplace that would be familiar to her "now" and show it in earlier stages--like while they were building the White House or some such (however, I have written it as so, so far, that she can't get to a familiar place.) So I am at a place where she's just playing along 'til she can get away. She thinks they're nuts—I find this funny, and I like to work with the funny.

I have written violent scenes and I hope like hell I never (ever, ever, ever) have to kill anyone but I had no hang up writing it. I have written other scenes that are against my norm, my sensibilities, even my comfort level and have had no problems, but when it comes to this "proof" I seem to be hung up. I have no problem working with any other aspect: the time travel, what caused it, what it affects, etc. but this dern proof is proving to be a pain.

So my quandary is, how do you write something you can't fathom or get beyond? How do you make something logical (to you) that doesn't have to necessarily be logical, it just has to make sense to the character? And have you ever been able to tell (or maybe you just think it's so) when a writer is not digging/believing what they've written? I guess on the up-side, I haven't written anything that doesn't work for me so hopefully when I do get it down, it will work. You might think this is discouraging, but actually this is part of what makes writing exciting to me, this process, this learning and doing... yeah, I'm a dork
:dork: