I have a confession to make:
Lately, I’ve been struggling with a couple of scenes, and it’s taken me longer than I would have liked to get through them. Further confession: I’m still not completely through one of them.
The first scene took just over a week before I reached the point where I didn’t want to just tear the whole thing down.
That “Just over a week” is also kinda an estimate. It feels like it’s been months that I’ve been working on this scene – though I know it hasn’t been that long.
From here, I was going to go off into a “Good News/Bad News” direction where I lamented the time it did take, but was happy that I was (mostly – this is a first draft after all) done with it. But this isn’t about “Good” or “Bad,” it just is.
I was struggling and there were some barely productive days but I’m not struggling as much as I was even though it’s still rough going.
And there are all kinds of reasons why it may be rough: I’m trying something new by including multiple points of view in this work. Maybe I don’t know as much about the POV character in these scenes as I thought I did. Maybe it’s because I’m tired. Or that it’s dark and cold this time of year and I haven’t seen the sun in days.
Maybe it’s all of the above – or none of the above.
The point is to realize that it won’t always be easy – especially when you’re stretching yourself, which is something that I try to do with every book. When you’re trying something new – and sometimes even when your not – that first draft is going to be a mess in some places. They don’t call it a rough draft for nothing.
Despite it not being easy, I’m still chipping away at it. And that’s how stories get written. Sometimes it’s in tiny, splinter-like chips, other times it comes in great boulder-like chunks. Both are good. Both get you closer to where you want to be.
Even a small step forward moves you along.
I’ll see you on Thursday. Be Excellent to each other.
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