A random chapter
Who knows why it's here, not me.
Word count at start of session: 165,208 Chapters left to edit: 30
Remember when I started this and I said some posts were likely to be all gloom and doom?
Welcome: the gloom, the doom.
It could be that the clocks have gone back, that the darkness of the streets outside for the last several hours it the real source of my sadness. But also, today I really feel like my novel sucks.
Today’s chapter is nothing to do with the last one. The thread of the story doesn’t follow. It is out of sequence completely, and at the moment I can’t find the chapter that should be here. It seems I’ve been doing an awful lot of that, and that even with my careful planning and plotting and re-writing during the second draft, there is still a lot of muddle, too many words and not enough actual tension building and plot.
Why am I telling you this? Two reasons.
One: I want to show my process warts and all, because I think too much advice about being stuck during the writing process is very general, and can make you feel like your problem is unique, and you’re just doing it WRONG.
Two: Because, at some point in the future, I will have figured it all out and found all the inconsistencies and cut all the extraneous words. I might even feel like it doesn’t completely suck.
When that time comes, and I’m feeling down about whatever comes next, you can remind me that not so long ago, I was in a much worse state :P
Today’s chapter, in brief:
The content of today’s chapter is undoubtedly useful for character development and the b-plot of the novel. It’s just in the wrong place. And at the moment, I’m not sure where it should go.
I’ve edited it, I’ve made a note. I’ll move it when I get to the end and have the overall shape. It was a short-ish chapter, so only 400 or so words cut. But every word helps - or at least that’s what I tell myself.