I’ve had one of the best Sundays in a while, today.
I can’t tell you exactly why it was so good. I mean, I can: I got everything done I wanted to get done…but in terms of WHY I was able to get all that stuff done and feel so good about it? I don’t know. Except maybe that it’s good to be home, and I’ve been writing.
I realized or remembered something this week about my writing: it’s okay to make a mistake, go back and delete it, and then figure out what do write instead. That takes time, and taking the time to do that is actually okay. It’s essential. For me.
Some people can just plow ahead with scenes not really working and then come back and fix everything up. I can’t. To a certainly degree. I don’t mean that a scene needs to be perfect. It really doesn’t…but I do need to know what function that scene is serving in the overall big picture. What’s at stake.
At least…I do now. After writing so many words that I didn’t know how to fix, I have to do it this way now. I don’t think I did it that way for the first draft of Starstuff. I think I just wrote, knowing some stuff wasn’t working, some scenes were going nowhere, and then I was able to go back and fix everything in a hefty rewrite…I know that’s the way it went, in fact.
But, here’s the thing: the path I had the characters on for that story was always so fucking clear to me. This time, it’s not as much.
So, maybe that’s my lesson: no two stories are going to come out the same, and if I feel like I can’t move forward until I work and re-work a scene until I feel like it’s truthful and right, well then, that’s what I need to do. I can feel in my gut that this method is working right now. I’m not going to second guess that. I don’t need to. I can feel it.
I did a lot of little projects today that had been on my to-do list for a while. I even took an epic nap. Watched some sports. Played a little Switch. And walked the dogs, ate dinner (which Liz made from her new cookbook and it was delicious!) AND watched a movie with bear. Booksmart. Almost all of it. We’re going to finished the last 20 minutes tomorrow.
It was, truly, an incredible day.
Oh, and Coco had poo explosions this morning. Not inside, thankfully; she pawed at me this morning from her bed down on the floor and I could see her shaking a knew that meant she needed to go out. So, we didn’t feed her breakfast. Pretty sure it’s this new dry food we just recently go to try and up her calorie intake without going through her wet food faster…but it’s clearly giving her tummy problems. Poor thing.
She better now, though. And goddamnit she was just so freaking CUTE this morning. She communicated to me so clearly that something was wrong and that she knew I could help her. I knew exactly what she needed.
Warms my heart.
Night.