The perils of freestyling
Filed under Writing Journal on September 23, 2005
Tagged: Scroll of Cairdein
I deleted almost a page of the current scene I’m working on in “Scroll” last night. It just wasn’t working. The action felt forced, making progress getting through the scene difficult and tedious.
I attribute this to a lack of a detailed outline. I plotted out the main scenes with a general idea of what and why, but there were plenty of holes for me to fill. This particular scene was one of them. Originally, I meant for it to just be a quick travelling sequence, but that really felt out of place with the rest of the piece. Each scene so far has added to the depth of character. This one didn’t, so I started thinking of ways to expand it. Idea #1 isn’t working. I think Idea #2 will fit better with the tone I’ve set so far.
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September 23rd, 2005 at 9:55 am
It’s good that you can be so objective about your work; a lot of authors can’t, and you can usually pick out their favorite passages because, although well-written, they do nothing to add to the story. I’m guilty of that more often than I’d like, I know.
September 23rd, 2005 at 1:55 pm
Amen, Marce.
September 25th, 2005 at 3:56 pm
There is a flipside, however, and it’s a perilous trap I fall into regularly. I’m too objective, and what seemed so brilliant yesterday doesn’t work at all today. I actually got several chapters into a story when I decided the whole thing wasn’t working out like I wanted, so I scrapped it and started over… aaaaand now I can’t get past the first page because I keep revising what I’m doing.
It’s a fine line to walk.
September 25th, 2005 at 7:17 pm
That’s one of the reasons why I sing the praises of outlining so loudly. It often saves you so much time in rewrites.