Does anyone else have this problem?When I'm plotting a novel, I think in beats: Beat One - first major scene/action, Beat Two - the first obstacle, Beat Three - the second obstacle, etc. etc. skipping ahead, Beat X - climax! E finito. The beats form so easily in my mind. ("Oh, it's going to be so awesome when she does this and then he does this and then there's this dragon...") It's coming. It's flowing. It's...all a bit too easy.
Way too easy.
If only that were all. But for some pesky reason, readers want these scenes to be connected. Connected! Imagine the nerve! Oh, so you want a slam-bang adventure but you want character development and side plots and cute little dialogue scenes in between, huh? Then you write. I WILL NOT DANCE FOR YOU!!!!
Ok, I may have gotten carried away there.
The point - I have a tough time with the inbetweens. Its like my brain doesn't want to write them when I'm blitzing through that first draft. I get to one and my skin starts to crawl, like when you see someone fall off a bike and get a nasty case of road rash. You know that feeling? Like if you don't skip ahead to something else you'll need to run screaming from the room? Or is that just me?
My coping mechanism: sometimes I just skip it and come back to it at the end. Sometimes I force myself to get something down on the page, even if it's just a rough outline of the scene. Sometimes I sit there are stare at the screen, hoping that if I do it long enough, the keyboard will magically start to write the scene for me. But jeez, that rarely works.
So does anyone else suffer from this malady? Suggestions are welcome.
Story of my life! I hate those "scenes I don't want to write" also. If there is one that is really driving me nuts, I'll put a note in parenthesis about what will happen in the scene and then I'll move ahead and come back. It helps make the scene stronger if I come back to it rather than word vomit what I don't want to write just to get it on the page.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing worse than disliking something you've written. You might as well count to ten and take another crack at it later. Otherwise you might just end up getting pissed off and never being satisfied with the scene.
*raises hands*
ReplyDeleteYes, suffer from this ailment. Meaty, juicy fun scenes to write, tied together with hurriedly cobbled together in-between bits. I always go back and tart 'em up in the first round of revisions. But, by God, they take some writing first time 'round.
Glad it's not just me.
I do. Thus my complete inability to write anything that anyone would want to read until like the seventh draft. Usually what I do is put in one of those funky number signs and then when I go back and revise and see one on every freaking page, I know I've got a problem. Le sigh.
ReplyDeleteWould it be insulting to say "I'm glad I'm not the only one?" :D
ReplyDeleteIn this post, you've basically nailed how my mind seems to work, which I've never been able to pin down. Just wanted to first comment on your brilliance. :-)
ReplyDeleteSometimes I do the "I'll just write part X first and paste it in when I get there."
Other times, I do pause and wait for the middle bits to come to me. I've don't it both ways.
Dominique, you are always welcome to comment on my brilliance. :D
ReplyDeleteI write this: [something great goes here]: and then I move on! Whether or not the something great ever happens is not so clear. But at least I have a moment of hope!
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's because those parts are the hardest to write. You know you'll have the reader's attention once the shit hits the fan, but right before it, there better be something going on that get's them in front of that fan. Definitely tests my creativity. Editing those sections is a pain in the ass too, because I keep wanting to cut everything in those sections. But even a minimalist like Hemmingway had some down/transition time between scenes, so we can't cut them completely.
ReplyDeleteFred