Backsliding

Well, I had to delete 1700 words yesterday, because I realized that I had taken two different wrong turns in the plot. The interesting thing with both of them is that in both cases I was clearly stalling while I tried to figure out what happened next. Much earlier in the process, I had made one of those discoveries which was exciting and causes one to revise the plot, except that I didn’t stop and redo my chapter breakdown. I kept writing. That’s all well and good, until I hit a point where I didn’t know what happened next. Then my characters went into holding patterns, vascillating between decisions without actually acting.

This is where writer’s block is your friend. I knew that I had made a mistake and by looking at the types and areas of my procrastination, I was able to spot the errors pretty fast. Too bad I didn’t spot them before I wrote them. But, in the big picture, it’s not so bad to toss 1700 words.

Anyway, I spent yesterday revising my plot outline. While there is still a chapter which says, “Something bad happens to Cassandra” and I’ve got no idea what the “something bad” is, the story as a whole is much more solid. I blazed through the next two chapters and am only 500 words behind where I should be today. Hurrah. So if I write between 2500 and 3000 words today I’ll be back on target.

This is why the weather is gorgeous outside. Temptation.

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2 thoughts on “Backsliding”

  1. Bad Things That Could Happen To Cassandra:

    -Someone drugs her and steals her kidney while she’s in Vegas.

    -She reveals a secret to the wrong person, and is betrayed.

    -You reveal the Big Mystery of your novel: all this time you’ve been telling the story from her POV as if she’s human, but she’s a housecat!

    -She breaks her leg while fleeing from a pack of feral dogs.

    -She learns that her parents are not who she thought they were.

    -She accidentally leaves the Ring of Power in the bathroom at KMart.

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