Backward to move forward

Anna and I spent yesterday afternoon trying to figure out the rest of the pond novel’s plot, and I think we got a lot of it. We definitely have the perfect final scene. We had some choices to make about the central mystery and where on the scale of benign to malignant one particular character should fall. We played out the options. We debated. We made our decisions.

The downside, or perhaps the upside, is that those decisions require that I go back and either rework or completely rewrite fourteen of the chapters that I was already considering finished (first-draft finished, at least). The idea almost overwhelms me at a moment when I’m craving forward momentum, but sometimes you have to go backward to go forward. As it stands, I’ve been a little stuck. Now that we have a clearer picture of the second half, going back and doing these rewrites should hopefully open things up.

Today I have a few hours to myself to write and so I will just go, just start hacking away, no hesitation. My plan is to paste the cut scenes at the end of the document, not because I think we will bring them back, but more as a record of where this draft has been. Can you tell this letter is a pep talk to myself?

Looking forward to seeing some of you at AWP later this week. The theme of my AWP is “I’m here to make friends” so please do say hi. 👋