Ark of the Convenient -- I don't get 'writer's block'

I never have writer's block in the pure sense. Ideas are easy to come by and if I sit down to write, I can always write story, character, scenario, scenes. What slows progress, is feeling my story is going down the wrong path. It means reevaluating, making changes, rewriting. Until all the problems are resolved, it is both painful and pointless to move forward. I have to be patient with the process.

Another problem is research. In a story set on Mars, there is a lot of world-building and speculation to do. For enrichment, I'm reading The Princess of Mars, inspiration for the recent film. It's a fun tale but it isn't really helping me research terraforming and Mars settlement scenarios. I could read web articles, non-fiction books and novels about Mars every day for the rest of the summer and I'd never run out of material, just writing time.

If "Ark of the Convenient," finishes around my approximate goal of 80 000 words, I'm halfway through the rough draft. I also know how it ends. Now, if I could just figure out the details between here and there...

Progress as of 8/03/2012