I’m making a big dent in this edit of the manuscript (Rev 9.4), but it feels like it just isn’t going fast enough. Yesterday I began rewriting the dressing room scene, in which Paul was originally attacked by Gideon after he has an initial conversation with Christopher’s ghost. My plan was to add a scrying scene with Avery where the first pawn shop scene (where Paul pawns Avery’s ring) is flashed back to, since Paul can’t recall having pawned the ring. The two ghost scenes needed removal, since they happened too fast on the heels of one another, and there’s no way Paul could handle three otherworldly happenings in one scene. As it is, I have to go back and rework his initial conversation with Christopher, which I’ve already moved into the preceding scene, to make Paul’s reactions more believable.
The difficulty I’m facing right now is one I’ve experienced before and have just now realized that I’ve hit again: Inertial block. This is when I sit down to start writing and can’t quite get going. It’s almost but not quite writer’s block. In this case I know exactly what has caused it. I stopped writing in mid-sentence without knowing exactly where I was going next. This is a very easy block to avoid, had I been more mindful that I was heading in that direction.
So, to overcome the inertia, I’ll probably erase a couple of sentences, rewrite them, and pull myself back into the scene. This is a case where rereading is a necessity. I know some writers advise never to look at what you’ve already written, but that advice generally applies to first drafts – not manuscript doctoring. In this case, I know where the scene has come from, where it’s heading, and what should happen next, just not how to get there.
Back to the playground…
