Ice cream all around

[darkemeralds]

I've spent the entire day slogging through a series of events and motivations in the novel. Character A does this, and Character B reacts, causing A to step up his actions, which in turn cause B to freak out, etc. I'd written the scenes at widely disparate moments, and not in linear order, and I was pretty sure they weren't flowing logically.

I'm pleased to report that after ten hours of wrestling, I've got them lined up, and the causal links smoothed out, and everyone's character intact. (I did this by identifying the ten key scenes, then making each of the main characters tell me what happened from his perspective, in the first person. They took their sweet time.)

So I'm gonna have a bowl of ice cream. Haagen-Dazs coffee, with hot gianduja sauce. Then I'm going to write some more. Because it's torture, but it's a good torture, you know?

Comments

[kis]

I sure do know. Currently hacking the mess of a Sanzo/Goku AU cyberpunk jungle I'm writing for springkink into some kind of shape. Pruning the ideas that sprouted by went nowhere. Fretting about their discarded stalks. Wondering whether I should invest in some rooting powder and let grow rampant.

[darkemeralds]

The horticultural metaphors, they are keeelling me! But I know what you mean.

For what it's worth, my pal owzers gave me a scene idea that was so good I wrote it up and loved it. Charming as it was, though, it reiterated some points already made, and actually hindered my plot. But it was soooo yummy that I couldn't just prune it out. Late last night, after the struggles and the ice-cream reward, I suddenly knew where to put it. Not only would it forward the plot at that point, but it also filled a time-gap in the storyline that I'd been struggling with.

So I guess you could say I grafted it on a different branch.