Problem scenes. I usually have several areas that just don’t work in an unfinished manuscript.
If I’m writing my first draft, I’ll just totally skip past the problem and continue to the next scene in my book. No big deal. If I’m particularly bothered by it and just want to put it out of my mind, I’ll make a comment to myself in the margin of the manuscript with Track Changes and keep going.
But…at some point the problem area has to be dealt with.
There are a few different ways that I’ll usually approach this chore. The first is to see if I can cut the scene out completely. Really—if it’s that bad, do I really need it? Can I sum up the content in a different way—through dialogue or a short transition? Does the scene serve a purpose and propel my plot forward, or would it be all right to just leave it out altogether?
My second standby is to open a new Word document and rewrite the scene without looking at it…basically by just reading the previous scene and going from there. Sometimes even the old word choices will serve to mess me up and keep me from rewriting the scene stronger.
Now I have a new technique to work with, courtesy of my writing friend Jan Morrison. She calls her technique ‘free fall’ and it applies the best of brainstorming—the stream of consciousness approach—to a problem scene.
Jan advises going to the problem area and picking out one thing about the page/scene that you like. It might be a great phrase or sentence. Then you put that snippet up at the top of a blank page and do a free fall/stream of consciousness exercise with it—until you reach the end of the thought or concept. Then, Jan advises taking the best out of that exercise and do the same thing, again, on a new sheet of paper. This sounds like a great way to explore a concept and a fresh way to take a look at a problem area. Jan calls it ‘mining for gold,’ and she further explains the free fall approach here.
A fourth way to a approach the problem scene is by distance from the manuscript or other ways of looking at the scene with new eyes. There are different ways to accomplish this—by actually letting time pass, by printing the scene and reading it on paper, reading the scene aloud, reading it in a different font, etc. I don’t always have a lot of time to just let a manuscript sit, but I do like printing it out or reading it aloud to better diagnose what’s wrong.
How about you? What do you do when you’re faced with a scene that doesn’t work?
Those are all great ideas!! {{huggs}}
GREAT ideas. I, too, loved Jan’s Friday Free Fall idea. And it a good way to get out of a scene that has problems!
Thanks for the other ideas, too, Elizabeth. Love the name you mentioned at my blog today!
Michele
SouthernCityMysteries
If I have not been able to write through it, I have left it with a note to myself of ending it properly later, but Jan´s method sounds interesting.
Distance and new eyes are the best way to fix a scene. I also like the advice that you can just let it go. Whatever was important in the scene will show up in another, better, way.
Oh that’s tough! I usually skip ahead and hope my subconscious figures things out before a return to a problem scene. The free fall idea sounds great but a lot of work. But I imagine it yields a lot of good stuff!
Excellent ideas. I tend to move on. When I come back to read and it still bothers me, then I work on it. Sometimes on the read-through, scenes that worked before now don’t and I have to tackle them as well.
I’m going to try your rewriting technique tonight on the opening scene in my book, which has never made me happy. Must do something to jar loose all those phrases and sentences I’m so glued to, that aren’t working. If that method doesn’t work, I’ll try Jan’s free fall idea Thanks for the great ideas.
Tammy–Thanks so much!
Michele–Thanks! Glad you like the name. It’s so funny, because I *never* spend that much time over names. I’m not sure what came over me, but I wanted to make sure it was *right.*
Mary–I do tend to scrap a lot of scenes. Especially if they’re making me worry a lot. I’ve got one now that I’m really unhappy with and I’ve cannibalized it into 3 different, new scenes. I like it much better now!
Bluestocking–You know, it might be nice to try the free fall with a voice recorder. You know? Just vocalize the part that works and follow it through that way.
Helen–Oh, ugh. Scenes that used to work and now don’t? I know just what you mean, and they’re a pain.
Toby–The nice thing about completely rewriting it and opening another document, is that we can say to ourselves, “Let’s just see what happens if I do *this*.” There’s no commitment and it’s not on the actual manuscript. So if we don’t like it, we can chunk it…but I almost *always* like it better than what I’ve written before. It may not be the final version of it, but it’s almost always *better*.
Such a great approaches to handling those problem spots, Elizabeth! I usually try to take some time away from it. That seems to help.
My approach is usually the first one (hence why my books sometimes end up on the short side of things). I love the third suggestion. I’ll have to give it a try.
Sara
http://smreine.com/
Thanks for the great ideas and the link to Free Fall!
I put the scene aside and pick it up later. Sometimes I end up deleting all of it and rewriting form scratch. The same approach works for numerical mathematics. When I have twisted my brain for days and weeks, without finding the critical bug in the computer code, I delete the entire code section and rewrite from scratch and … voila … it works >:)
Cold As Heaven
I plow through the first draft without skipping. When I go back to scenes that feel flaky, I pick a spot that feels right and basically rewrite everything after that point, going in a new direction.
Great suggestions! Especially the one about cutting the problem scene completely if possible. That’s the one I struggle to remember and almost always turns out to be the right answer. :->
Hey Elizabeth – thanks for sharing free fall and I am most interested in the other three ideas too. I particularly like the notion of xing it altogether and I’ve definitely used the one where you rewrite it without looking at it.
Ah – revision -such a feast of fun!
Dorte–I think it’s a great way to make a scene work better.
SM–My books are always short in drafts. I have to bulk them up later on with descriptions and subplots.
Nas Dean–You’re so welcome!
Cold As Heaven–Well, the idea of deleting *code* makes me feel a little shaky, but I’m totally with you on deleting words!
Alex–That’s a great way to handle it. Sometimes we just need to try a totally different path.
Carolina–Always nice to take some time away from it. :)
M.E.–It’s an easy fix because frequently we just don’t need it in there at all!
Jan–Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees, but I have found that if a scene is really not working, I can just remove it and convey the info in the scene in another way. :)
Obviously, the first step is as you decribed – sip past it. But before I skip past I wite a phase describing what the mission of that scene is like {pinchpoint to show black-hat Bart’s evil side} then move on.
When I’m in a frame of mind that suits the scene I’ll come back to it, but always with the mission of that scene top of mind.
If it’s a scene already written, and is clumsy, or doesn’t scan or doesn’t have the ‘feel’ of the surrounding scenes (you know what I mean – sticks out like a sore thumb) then it’s just a matter of rolling up the sleeves and throwing out everything that doesn’t work. Sometimes it ends up that I throw the whole thing out, but usually the scene is needed (the mission part above) and it takes extra effort to get it right.
Well, I meant ‘skip past it’, but sometimes ‘sip past it’ works too. Especially if the sipping is 12 year old single cask Irish…