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Sender: Open discussions on the writer's craft <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2005 00:14:57 -0500
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Reply-To: Open discussions on the writer's craft <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Joshua Whitmore <[log in to unmask]>
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My own experience with my writing forces me to ask the question: Do you know why you glaze over things? Is it because you don't want to write that part or don't know what should be in it or some other reason?

I've found two reasons why I've rushed past things.

I've rushed past scenes because I didn't necessarily know what was going in it. I knew it needed to be there (Can't logically get from A to C without going through B), but it didn't have any substance. Usually when planning a story, I have an overall outline of the story (two-sentence equation, important plot points) and world/character dossiers. When I noticed I would rush past parts of the story, I started going back and writing out very rough and very brief descriptions of scene and sequel for each plot point. I've found doing a more detailed organization of the story helps me get a better understanding of the story in addition to helping me plan out the building blocks of the story. Oh how I love and hate scene and sequel.

I've also rushed past things because I wanted to move forward in the story. Typically, I would be writing a sequel and thinking about the next scene and how exciting it would be. And, oh, this should happen! This led to quickly scribbling out a sequel and moving on. When I realized (or was told in red pen--"Emotion"), I went back put more substance into the lacking parts.

Once you figure out why you do something, you can work towards fixing it (or finding a way to work with it). I still rush through certain parts of the manuscript and then go back to flesh things out, and it works for me.

I agree with Matt that if I slow down too much, I lose some momentum. And if you can't make it to the end, you don't have a story. You can always go back later and add in more.

Joshua

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