Better than yesterday

By Holly Lisle

No words on the page, but six new scenes figured out. Which means I’ve about finished my coronary bypass around the the clogged artery of those bad center scenes where I took the story over the top.

Process is simple. Write one notecard for each scene that will replace a broken scene.

DO NOT REVISE THE BROKEN SCENE. Simply apply the patch of a one-sentence index card saying “This is what SHOULD be here,” in its place.

When all scenes have a bright pink SEP field* around them, you simply move on to write the next unwritten scene, as if all the preceding wrecked scenes had been written the way they needed to be, and were currently perfect.

Someone is thinking, “Why? Why? Why would you do this instead of fixing the scene and then moving on? Why?”

Simple reason. I only revise once, but I do one ferocious job of it when I do it. I think I know how my story will end now. But I might not. Things change. And I refuse to rework scenes that are going to have to be changed again when I discover than my ending has changed drastically. Creating index cards allows me to know I know what to do with those scenes when I get back to them. And if the ending changes, it allows me to rethink a thirty-word card, and not a 3000 word scene. Times ten.

That’s why.

Have about three scenes to go. Will get those tomorrow.

How did your writing go?

* Douglas Adams reference: “Somebody Else’s Problem”

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