THAT SCENE YOU JUST WANT TO GET OVERWITH BUT…

You have the muse, you’re into writing, but then it comes to that one scene. You just want to get it overwith and move on. Have you run across that feeling?

There are scenes throughout a story that are necessary to move the plot along. They may seem either routine, uncomfortable, or just plain tedious to write, yet they’re necessary.

Or are they?

Is it just that you happen to be tired that day?

Could it be that the very scene you don’t want to write shouldn’t be there in the first place?

What if you’re looking at it the wrong way?

Has your muse taken vacation and you never realized it?

FATIGUE

Every one of us has off days, no matter what our mind might be telling us otherwise. We may be rarin’ and ready to go inspiration wise, yet when we sit down to type (or write), something happens. The words don’t flow out like expected. We get to the point where we have to write “that scene” to make the plot move on, yet something doesn’t click. It becomes pedestrian, or tedious in the execution.

It’s not that the scene isn’t necessary, it’s that our muse is just at a fizzle at the moment.

Time to step back and do something else.

WHAT IF IT SHOULDN’T BE THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?

As you’re writing that scene, it drags on and something in the back of your head is telling you it’s not clicking. You keep on for a bit but then you stop.

Why am I writing this?

It’s the wrong direction.

I should do it this way.

As much as you hate to kill your darling, so far, it’s only a page, maybe two, so stop, go to the top and hit delete and start over. So what if you took a bit of time. It isn’t really wasted. You did an experiment and it didn’t work. No reason to cling on to something that just didn’t cut it. It’s better to sacrifice it now than try to make something work that shouldn’t be there in the first place!

WHAT IF YOU’RE LOOKING AT IT THE WRONG WAY?

Similar, but not quite the same as the section above, maybe you’re looking at this scene all wrong. In this case, like above, trash it and step back. This is a case of walking away from the computer, no matter how inspired you may be, and re-thinking what you’re doing.

Do you still have A and B? If you’re a pantser, you should. If you’re an outliner, it’s time to go back and look at your notes.

In either case, linear, outline, or whatever method you use, this is not a time to rush and just get the scene overwith so you can move on. If so, you may set yourself up for failure later on. You may write yourself into a hole.

HAS YOUR MUSE TAKEN A VACATION?

Though this is mainly for pantsers, it can also apply to outliners as well.

Maybe you’re inspired to write. Maybe you’re super-inspired, hyper-inspired, over-the-top inspired to write!

Shut off your manuscript and write a short story or something.

Walk away from it before you do something that you can’t easily erase.

Don’t rush that scene you don’t want to write just to get to the part you do, just to get it overwith until you’ve thought it out.

DO NOT skip ahead and come back and fix it later. That can form a continuity hole in your story that can be even more difficult to fix.

I know of some writers that skip all over the place in their stories. However, when they write that way, it’s really hard to go back and repair it, make the story linear, and for it to flow properly, especially for editors!

MY OWN EXPERIENCES

This issue has rarely happened to me. When it has, a funny thing happened.

When I set out to write the (to me) mundane scene, the muse actually intensified the more I got into it. What started as a routine transitional scene, became a key part of the story.

Since the method I write is an adventure in itself, that mundane scene, say a meeting in a bar as an example, became a key to learning information about a forthcoming adventure.

I love writing so much that there aren’t any scenes I want to get overwith. Sure, I get tired and sometimes don’t always get to write when I want to, but so far in the twenty-plus years I’ve been at this, when I’m in my muse, I’m away in my world. There is no scene I want to get overwith. I just want to keep writing to see what happens next!

Happy writing!