Sitting here at my computer, my husband furiously playing Starcraft in the background, I realize I've been staring at the same scene on my computer screen for over two hours now. I don't recall breathing or even blinking. What I know is that I still haven't figured out how to reconcile new revisions and better developed ideas with my current prose.
What am I to do? Try to mold my previous scene with recent revisions, or scrap the whole chapter and rewrite the blasted thing from scratch?
The worst part of this whole situation is that I have been stuck on this revision block for nearly three weeks. It's pretty well staunched any creativity or even motivation to continue going. Sitting down to work it through and press on, my eyes instantly glaze over and my mind repeatedly flashes a blinking, glaring light that says, "You'll never figure this out, chump."
I can't really move on because a major element in the plot hinges on how this scene resolves, yet I can't come to any solid resolution. One thing I know I shouldn't do: start at the beginning of the novel and re-read my most recent revisions. I can think of numerous ways to die slowly and not nearly as painful.
That leads me to wonder, am I trying too hard to make this scene perfect the first time without allowing myself the freedom that future revisions give me? Perhaps I'm not willing to kill my babies that the previous scene held, which binds my hands.
I don't know if this entry is to motivate me or to reassure myself that I'm still capable of putting words down on paper, but what I will have to do is simply write through the scene as if it has never been done before, which, in all reality, it hasn't. Wish me luck and I hope you never encounter a situation like this. If you do, I'll send you my list of 102 ways to slowly die that are less painful than revision issues such as this...
In situations like that I've found the best solution is to call up one of your writing partners and talk it through. It is immensely helpful to tell someone about the scene and hear suggestions or even questions so you know where to start filling the gap. It's also great to even just say it out loud to someone else and I've found often times I make things up as I go because I have to say in a way that makes sense and allows them to picture the scene while I talk. Next time this happens don't die slowly but call someone and figure it out together.
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