Revelation #1, which we first discussed on Friday, involved (to refresh your memories) rearranging scenes for no better reason than it occurred to me that while I have heard of people picking up entire scenes and dropping them into a story in a different place, I've never done that before and it might be an interesting experiment.

I dragged out my little index cards and moved things around happily for an hour or two Friday evening. Nothing fit in any new places...until the moment when, indeed, it turned out that one scene would be better placed earlier in the story. (Those people who write the writing books sometimes know what they're talking about.)


Revelation #2 revolved around precisely what this story is about. You'd think I'd have worked that out before I got 90+ pages written, but I've always been a bit backward. Anyhow, I changed my mind and it's no longer a case story with romantic interludes, now it's a romance with detective interruptions. It needs less details about the "case" and a lot more UST.

This weekend I managed to eliminate five "case" scenes under the assumption that I don't need all those boring 'plot development' bits any more anyhow, what I need is more focus on the characters' interaction.

I may have been a bit hasty. Now I have up to the "middle" of the story written but I eliminated everything between said middle and the crisis/resolution. I'm thinking the occasional reader inadvertently paying attention to the "case" part of the story may find that a bit abrupt.

Also, while the "case" was well-defined in my mind, I'm not quite, at least yet, clear about the development of the slash plot.* So, it's always possible I should, instead, go back and remove the slash plot and just write a gen "case story" sort of story. (Of course, "well-defined" doesn't necessarily equal "interesting," so that will introduce new problems.)


Revelation #3 is connected to yet another experiment I tried with this story. That's this idea of writing something that won't happen until you've filled in the forty pages of 'story' that leads up to it. As I recall mentioning, probably repeatedly, this, also was a new concept for me.

I wrote three scenes out of order that way, then realized I was writing the "fun bits" and that if I didn't control myself, I'd wind up someday with nothing but the "boring bits" to write and that, me being me, I'd never get them written.

Now that I'm shoving the SEN down the road toward those pre-written scenes, I'm finding that the scenes, as originally conceived, don't fit the story, as actually written.

I knew this would happen. It's just not possible to write things out of order. How can you possibly know exactly what's going to happen between page 1 and page 75, so that the scene you're writing that will start on page 76 is going to be appropriate?

You can't. If you try, it doesn't.

Now I have to face either re-writing those scenes, even though they're better, in their original form, than most of the stuff I've written to lead up to them, or of just tossing them and writing something entirely new for that spot in the story.

In conclusion, over the weekend, I did rather a lot of editing on the stuff I've already written. I added a certain amount of content here and there to fit Revelation #2, most of it pretty clunky. (It hurts my brain to read it and I'm my most forgiving reader.**)

I wrote nothing new. The last quarter of the story is still languishing there unwritten because of all these issues I'm having. (Or, rather, the last third of the story is half-written, in two separate scenes, but they don't connect properly with what goes before them because they were written out of order.)

And, to finish off with, let me mention that I watched more episodes this weekend. As it turns out, many of the lines of dialogue I was concerned about in the SEN do, in fact, sound just like the characters on-screen.

Considering how badly written most of the show was, I don't find that comforting. (I'm at the point where nothing is going to be comforting.)

It's all very aggravating. I swear, I know I've always complained about writing, but I'm just sure it wasn't this hard before.

The "case story" is boring because the OCs refused to become three-dimensional and the romantic story is lifeless and unconvincing and the next time I say, "Hey! I think I'll write a story!" I'd hope my real friends will hold me down and medicate me until the urge passes.

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* I don't know. The last time I tried to write for these characters, it was all very clear. This time, I know the potential is there but I can't figure out how to get them started.

There has to be the Magic Moment, you know? That moment when your narrative character faces up to what he wants. When he identifies what he wants. Victor's my narrative character and he's cooperating reasonably well, but he can't do it alone and Mac isn't cooperating at all. He's completely and entirely bored.

It's very important. The development of the entire romance is defined by that moment and so far this story lacks that turning point. (I call it the "trigger." It's the moment that the character not only defines what he wants but also becomes willing to take risks to attain it.***)

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** Okay, it's possible that's not entirely true. But in the sense that I'm the only one who knows what I meant to say, so that my brain is more inclined to fill in gaps in my writing than anyone else's brain would be, in that sense, it's true.

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*** "A properly asked question answers itself."

And this, in the end, is why I blog so endlessly about the process of writing. I'm really asking myself questions.

There's the answer I was looking for, right there.

Revelation #4. Risk. And now I know why the romantic plot is boring.