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Clearing the roadblock
Nov. 14th, 2009 10:51 amYesterday I finished the chapter I've been working on for a while. I'd been stuck for over a week at the same spot, making one false start after another as I tried to finish one scene and then begin the next.
I finally realized that the problem was two particular paragraphs. I'd worked hard on them. They were well-written, and had information that is critical for understanding one of the central character arcs.
And this was absolutely the wrong place for them. They functioned like speedbumps, slowing the pace down to a crawl. I hated cutting them, but once I did, the scene flowed the way I needed it to, and I was able to write the next scene and finish off the chapter.
The chapter isn't perfect, but it's solid, so I can keep moving forward. I've saved those paragraphs in my story notes file, pretending that I'm going to use them, but in reality we all know that I'll just visit them from time to time, pet the perfect prose, and somewhere in the new chapter or the next, I'll figure out a different way to get this information across.
I finally realized that the problem was two particular paragraphs. I'd worked hard on them. They were well-written, and had information that is critical for understanding one of the central character arcs.
And this was absolutely the wrong place for them. They functioned like speedbumps, slowing the pace down to a crawl. I hated cutting them, but once I did, the scene flowed the way I needed it to, and I was able to write the next scene and finish off the chapter.
The chapter isn't perfect, but it's solid, so I can keep moving forward. I've saved those paragraphs in my story notes file, pretending that I'm going to use them, but in reality we all know that I'll just visit them from time to time, pet the perfect prose, and somewhere in the new chapter or the next, I'll figure out a different way to get this information across.