Whack-A-Scene

Not because it's relevant...just because it's
so darn cute

Well, one week down on the new schedule. If you follow me, you know I missed this past Wednesday. There’s a very good reason for that: I hadn’t written the post on the previous Thursday like I wanted to. Because once we get into the week, all bets are most definitely off. It’s incredible the things that can pop up, and you with hammer in hand can only do your best to pop them back down.

Which reminds me: revision. I’ve experienced quite a few methods of revision, in the process of perfecting my book. One method was let my then-girlfriend-then-fiancée read it and put comments in red along the sidebar. Talk about pressure-treating your relationship, not to mention trying to get used to seeing more red than black on a manuscript.

Later in life, I read through and came up with a list of revisions of things I wanted to change – sometimes it was whole scenes, sometimes a string of scenes for a minor sub-plot, sometimes it was one description; whatever it was, it got a number and I got to sit down each day (it was Winter Break – lovely time) and knock off a few items. That was the most effective bout of revisions I’ve ever experienced.

Then came the dreaded thorough overhaul when I thought I needed to outline every scene for an almost entirely new plot structure and rewrite half to three-quarters of the manuscript over again. Fortunately, though I learned the value of outlining, I didn’t need to learn the value of rewriting from scratch.

Now, though, much like my weekly “schedule” (we’ll laughingly call it), I’m playing something of a game of whack-a-scene: I have outlined some sub-plots, and know of some key scenes and events that need to be plugged into the book. It’s not as efficient nor as neatly detailed as that one Winter Break (ah, Winter Break…) but it’s definable. So I sit and chew on it. Eventually, a scene sticks in my mind and starts growing some sinews and flesh, and before you know it, it’s ready to pop out onto the page.

It’s almost never chronological. This past week, I wrote one scene at the climax of one character’s arc, and a few days later wrote the scene at the very beginning of another’s arc. It’s a definite direction; I know the game ends eventually, but fortunately not without my striking all the moles; and it allows me to still be creative in my process. I still have to sit down and focus sometimes (waiting for the muse is for amateurs, after all) but I’m not locked in on what to focus on. That allows me to keep my energy up, a little.

And so I soldier on. Not much moving on book two, unfortunately: maybe once tax season is over, or if I settle more securely in this new attempted schedule of mine. Oh, things still pop up; don’t they always? But there’s no sitting down in a concerted effort to produce something. But it’s coming.

Soon.

To theaters.

(That last one isn’t true.)

(Yet.)

***The picture for this blog post came up way down on a page of results for "multiple drafts." And it was cute, and it made me happy, unlike the rest of the results; so I decided to make you happy too. Enjoy.