I was struggling with a scene today, and I had kind of an epiphany.
I realize now in retrospect that the critical voice was getting the best of me. It was telling me all the reasons why the scene I was trying to write wasn’t going to work, and I wasn’t sure how to fix it. The concept of “shoe leather” kept coming into my head. I worried nothing was happening.
But, I didn’t realize that at the time. What I realized at the time was that there WAS a reason I wanted to write the scene, and that reason, what I wanted to write had everything to do with writing a scene that I would enjoy and fall in love with, and nothing to do with my editing process of making sure my book was tight and polished.
I decided to lean into that…and I ended up writing a scene that I absolutely love. It was a pleasure to write. The words came fast.
I’m still figuring out how to balance all this stuff in my process. The critical voice, particularly the way that it’s manifesting itself lately, which has been much more reasonable and constructive, DOES have its place in my writing. But, while I’m writing is not it. It doesn’t belong there.
So…that was big. And it paid off instantly. I really didn’t know what I was going to write this afternoon, but what happened was I banged out a scene that’s probably good enough to make the final cut. We’ll see.
I
Am
Exhausted.
Long work day. Tons of traffic coming home.
I am passing out early 😂
But it was a good day. A very good day.
Night!