As I have always known, the more busy I am with outside obligations such as my rent-paying day job and my heart-filling fundraising, the less I accomplish with my writing. There is only so much fire this fuel can spark. Nevertheless, I still tried. It's just despite my efforts lately, I haven't been getting very far.
Lately I have become more aware of the downside of being, as I usually describe myself, "a scene writer." I don't write stories chapter by chapter, but more from scene to scene. I have always been this way. As much as I love it: I find it as entertaining as reading a book because I too don't know what's going to happen next, I have discovered some downsides. One slight pitfall to this particular style of writing is trying to figure out which scenes build up into which chapter - I haven't tried to discern this yet - I will leave that for my formatting days. The downside I am face to face with now is making sure there are transitions in place to smoothly move from one scene or chapter to the next.
I have been working on my current novel for roughly a year, and it's quite closed to finished. 70,000 words and counting. Except of course for the few places I knew I needed to revisit to build in some better transitions. It's more challenging task than I expected. While some transitions surprise me and seemingly write themselves, others are more like pulling teeth. Particularly, I've been at an utter standstill, anguishing over a necessary transitional chapter that will better connect my third and fifth chapters. I've started three or four versions but can't seem to finish any of them.
They do not feel right, therefore do not fit right either. Just like working one's way through a jigsaw puzzle, if the piece doesn't fit, there is not point forcing it as it's just going to ruin the rest of the project.
That's the epiphany I had today. I've been trying to force something that's not meant to be. This is why it's not working. I didn't have a chapter between them before because there was never supposed to be one there. It's exactly like those well-known memes say, if you have to force it, it's probably shite.
Interestingly, as soon as I have made this realization, I seem to be able to easily work in a few transitional sentences instead. Suddenly I can see the wrinkles being smoothed. I will be able to complete this task and move on to the next.
Suddenly, I can breathe.
Lately I have become more aware of the downside of being, as I usually describe myself, "a scene writer." I don't write stories chapter by chapter, but more from scene to scene. I have always been this way. As much as I love it: I find it as entertaining as reading a book because I too don't know what's going to happen next, I have discovered some downsides. One slight pitfall to this particular style of writing is trying to figure out which scenes build up into which chapter - I haven't tried to discern this yet - I will leave that for my formatting days. The downside I am face to face with now is making sure there are transitions in place to smoothly move from one scene or chapter to the next.
I have been working on my current novel for roughly a year, and it's quite closed to finished. 70,000 words and counting. Except of course for the few places I knew I needed to revisit to build in some better transitions. It's more challenging task than I expected. While some transitions surprise me and seemingly write themselves, others are more like pulling teeth. Particularly, I've been at an utter standstill, anguishing over a necessary transitional chapter that will better connect my third and fifth chapters. I've started three or four versions but can't seem to finish any of them.
They do not feel right, therefore do not fit right either. Just like working one's way through a jigsaw puzzle, if the piece doesn't fit, there is not point forcing it as it's just going to ruin the rest of the project.
That's the epiphany I had today. I've been trying to force something that's not meant to be. This is why it's not working. I didn't have a chapter between them before because there was never supposed to be one there. It's exactly like those well-known memes say, if you have to force it, it's probably shite.
Interestingly, as soon as I have made this realization, I seem to be able to easily work in a few transitional sentences instead. Suddenly I can see the wrinkles being smoothed. I will be able to complete this task and move on to the next.
Suddenly, I can breathe.
No comments:
Post a Comment