Day 261: Rewriting scenes
My back is bothering me a little again today. I’m really frustrated! I don’t want to be the type of writer where everything has to be perfect before I can work. But lately it’s been really hard to concentrate unless I’m absolutely comfortable—the least discomfort is too distracting.
Well, I’m in the midst of some IBS issues, so maybe once that passes, I’ll have more energy and be able to work. Once my back feels better, I’ll also be able to continue my exercise.
I’m still unhappy with the current scene I’m working on. I added more conflict to the scene before, but this scene still has a very slow opening and I haven’t been able to figure out how to structure it. Not much happens in the scene but there is some information that needs to be said and there are some emotional revelations that happen in the latter half. Since it’s a scene near the end of the book, the exposition is necessary to wrap up the climax events.
I finally decided on something to add a little tension, and to make the exposition not quite so boring. I hope it works out well.
***
I put the work on the scene under editing, since I was technically editing what I’d written before, but I ended up adding almost 1000 words to the manuscript.
***
It was slow going when I began writing the rest of the scene. For some reason I kept rearranging and rewriting things. To be honest, I’m much happier with the scene after it was reworked, but editing as I write probably wasn’t the most efficient way to go.
However, I figured out the flow of the scene so that it’s better than before, and it leads into the next scene better than I had expected. I now only have one more scene left in the story!
I was probably editing as I go because I’m so close to finishing the book, and so I want the copy to be clean so editing won’t be so bad. But also this scene and the previous scene were really difficult. For the previous scene, I changed POV several times, I split the scene, then recombined them, then split the scene again. It was a mess! For the scene I just finished, I’ve rewritten it several times, trying to make it something I was happy with, because when I just wrote it and tried not to edit, I wasn’t happy with what I wrote.
In thinking about it, the last two scenes might have been difficult because I ended up not using the blocking notes I wrote. The way the scenes were blocked, they weren’t terribly interesting and as I was writing them, I realized they lacked a bit of conflict and tension. I ended up changing things a bit to make the scenes something I’d be interested in writing (and reading).
So maybe if I’d spent more time redoing the blocking, I might not have spent so much time editing and rewriting the scenes? That might be something I ought to keep in mind for the next time.
I’ve already done about 5 hours of writing work, but since I’ll be starting work on my contemporary romance series novella after I finish this manuscript, I think I should work a bit on the overall series premise. So I think I’ll do some brainstorming for a little bit.
***
A “little bit” turned into 3.5 hours! Now I’m super tired and I didn’t get any reading done today. I wonder if I have to read a little more tomorrow to make up for it.
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 3 hours, 16 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 2 hours
Writing: Total number of words: 1304 words
Writing: Average speed (sprints): 729 words per hour
Writing: Overall writing speed: 654 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 5 hours, 29 minutes
My takeaway for today: Maybe if I’d spent more time redoing the blocking, I might not have spent so much time editing and rewriting the scenes
Well, I’m in the midst of some IBS issues, so maybe once that passes, I’ll have more energy and be able to work. Once my back feels better, I’ll also be able to continue my exercise.
I’m still unhappy with the current scene I’m working on. I added more conflict to the scene before, but this scene still has a very slow opening and I haven’t been able to figure out how to structure it. Not much happens in the scene but there is some information that needs to be said and there are some emotional revelations that happen in the latter half. Since it’s a scene near the end of the book, the exposition is necessary to wrap up the climax events.
I finally decided on something to add a little tension, and to make the exposition not quite so boring. I hope it works out well.
***
I put the work on the scene under editing, since I was technically editing what I’d written before, but I ended up adding almost 1000 words to the manuscript.
***
It was slow going when I began writing the rest of the scene. For some reason I kept rearranging and rewriting things. To be honest, I’m much happier with the scene after it was reworked, but editing as I write probably wasn’t the most efficient way to go.
However, I figured out the flow of the scene so that it’s better than before, and it leads into the next scene better than I had expected. I now only have one more scene left in the story!
I was probably editing as I go because I’m so close to finishing the book, and so I want the copy to be clean so editing won’t be so bad. But also this scene and the previous scene were really difficult. For the previous scene, I changed POV several times, I split the scene, then recombined them, then split the scene again. It was a mess! For the scene I just finished, I’ve rewritten it several times, trying to make it something I was happy with, because when I just wrote it and tried not to edit, I wasn’t happy with what I wrote.
In thinking about it, the last two scenes might have been difficult because I ended up not using the blocking notes I wrote. The way the scenes were blocked, they weren’t terribly interesting and as I was writing them, I realized they lacked a bit of conflict and tension. I ended up changing things a bit to make the scenes something I’d be interested in writing (and reading).
So maybe if I’d spent more time redoing the blocking, I might not have spent so much time editing and rewriting the scenes? That might be something I ought to keep in mind for the next time.
I’ve already done about 5 hours of writing work, but since I’ll be starting work on my contemporary romance series novella after I finish this manuscript, I think I should work a bit on the overall series premise. So I think I’ll do some brainstorming for a little bit.
***
A “little bit” turned into 3.5 hours! Now I’m super tired and I didn’t get any reading done today. I wonder if I have to read a little more tomorrow to make up for it.
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 3 hours, 16 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 2 hours
Writing: Total number of words: 1304 words
Writing: Average speed (sprints): 729 words per hour
Writing: Overall writing speed: 654 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 5 hours, 29 minutes
My takeaway for today: Maybe if I’d spent more time redoing the blocking, I might not have spent so much time editing and rewriting the scenes
Comments
Post a Comment