On the subject of writing ‘for the good bits’
I think it’s fine to have juicy scenes or lines as the raison d’être, as the carrot for motivating oneself to apply fingers to keyboard even when it’s hard and the doubt demons and brain weasels and the effluvia of the everyday weigh you down and urge us to couch rot instead.
I speak from experience, not theory: I wrote a whole 13k fic for a ship that’s you know, fine I guess, but not my main interest in the IP, simply because the literal last line popped in my head complete with feelings and wouldn’t leave me the hell alone.
The thing is, all 13,000 words [getting there] were fun. Even when it was hard, it wasn’t a chore. Every moment I was working on that fever dream of a fic I could see that bright, clear line from [here] to [there], and every single scene in between was part of getting us to that one line and making it mean something.
So every time my brain rebells about writing the [getting there] bits, that’s my sign to sit down at the table with the outline and motivation and goals (I don’t really think about themes and tropes like some folks do before or during drafting but if you do maybe those should be at your table?) and interrogate why that scene or section is Hard™️.
Is this reluctance actually about the writing being a chore, or am I avoiding the work (or black hole) of Research?
Is there a flaw in the concept of this scene/section that creates discord with the character or plot development at this point of the story (or the trajectory we’re supposed to be on)?
Is something missing ten lines ago and my hindbrain is trying to tell me we can’t do X until we have Y?
Is this scene/section only here because of the Rule of Cool or Expectation of How Stories Are Supposed To Be Shaped?
If we cut or jump past to the aftermath what would that do to the bright, clear trajectory toward The Thing We Want To Write? Would we lose something? Why?
Is this actually just fear that the section will not go well for me or be poorly received by readers? Why am I more afraid of/for this bit than the goal?
What would it take to be excited about this scene/section if I was the reader along for the ride?
What purpose is this scene supposed to serve that’s not obvious from my notes or outline? Can that purpose be brought into focus, or would that spoil the effect of some other scene? Why?
Not an exhaustive list, of course. These are just some of the things I think about in my process, especially in the dreaded Sagging Middle. Sometimes the feeling of meandering through the first two acts in the manuscript or struggling to apply hours at the keyboard (tumblr didn’t like me hotlinking two posts for Reasons™️ https://www.tumblr.com/official-impravidus/810673853619650560/word-count-tips-from-a-guy-who-has-over-2-million ) can be solved by (yes, practice and also) interrogating the outline and putting those why’s in the spotlight.
