There is a moment when you’re writing that you just KNOW what you’ve written is wrong. Last night I wrote from 7:00 until 12:00. I was tooling along, the words were flowing, and things seemed to be going okay until I realized I’d lost my characters and changed them from who they were into completely different people.
I started a scene and it ran away from me. I couldn’t stop. After writing 3300 words, I realized I had completely changed how my characters react and interact. I’ve had this feeling before and the best course of action is to let it be and come back to it later.
I shut down my computer. I got ready for bed and realized I couldn’t leave them hanging there. I went back and started tinkering with the scene. I hated it even more. I opted to undo all the redos so it went back to the original I had when I shut down in the first place.
Then I couldn’t sleep. I knew the story had gone terribly wrong but I wasn’t sure where it had gone terribly wrong. I lay in the dark thinking about it. This is never a good thing – at least for my being able to sleep. Eventually I realized I needed to go back to the first scene I had written and change the way a conversation went. This was where I’d gone wrong.
Finally I knew what I needed to do so I was able to eventually get to sleep. This morning I woke up and knew exactly what I needed to keep and get rid of all the 3300 words I’d written. Now I just have to find the time to actual do the changes and get them back on track.
My characters are probably milling about saying – what is she doing to us? Fortunately, my inner editor will be able to rescue them from the complete disaster I made of the last two scenes.