Rosemary Sutcliff community

Thanks for posting this delightful essay. (And for posting all the other essays — I’m really enjoying reading them.) I loved finding out about this early story and how it got reworked in The Eagle of the Ninth — and how many of her regular themes it includes. She doesn’t specifically mention it, but obviously Jane-Anne = Cottia, too. I wonder if the change in focus character was part of what helped “unstick” her and make her able to find the end of the story.

I’ve definitely had the experience of some stories “writing themselves”, while working on others is like wading through knee-high molasses. Like riventhorn, I’d say experience and greater craft/technique makes it easier to push past the blocks and tell the story you want to tell. Which is why it can be such a shock on the few occasions you run into a complete brick wall....