Comments | dodger_winslow: Caaaaaaaaaa-RAP!

dodger_winslow

Caaaaaaaaaa-RAP!

Nov 30, 2007 18:06

OMG. I have a transition scene in Skin Deep between John and Dean to get from where I left y'all to a long-ass conversation between John and Sammy. It was done, finito, completely written a day and a half ago ... I've been working on the John and Sammy convo. And it has doubled in size from where it was when I thought it was finished, but kinda ( Read more... )

writing

Comments 22

percysowner December 1 2007, 04:54:56 UTC

In other words we should prepare to settle down with a nice drink and a warm blankie, and just read ourselves silly, sounds good to me. Sorry about the hurty head, but I am looking forward to the transition scene.

dodger_winslow December 4 2007, 05:40:09 UTC

Heck, the 15 pager is the SHORT conversations scene. The Sammy-John conversation is around 35.

Those boys sure can chat.

percysowner December 4 2007, 11:11:49 UTC

They sure can. The only good side of th writers strike is it will let me get caught up on really long complex fanfic.

sams1ra December 1 2007, 05:50:45 UTC

So, basically, what you're saying is, there's more for us to read. Yay!

dodger_winslow December 4 2007, 05:40:32 UTC

Yeah. Basically. :D

phantomas December 1 2007, 13:07:13 UTC

15 more pages...and the problem is? *G*

I'll be giving myself Skin Deep as a Christmas gift, something to read while I'm home in the craziness of it. It'll keep me sane, I hope :D

dodger_winslow December 4 2007, 05:34:36 UTC

Yeeeeesh. It's kinda dark for holiday viewing. You might want to stay away from window ledges that are more than a couple feet off the ground while you're reading it ...

:D

I'm very excited to hear your thoughts on it though. I can hardly wait.

fantasyenabler December 1 2007, 21:29:01 UTC

One part of me is thinking this way: sympathy, sympathy, sympathy, sympathy.

The rest of me is thinking this: Bwah! So very "been there, done that."

The good news, as I'm sure you're discovering, is that when this happens you typically discover all sorts of new and cool things going on in your characters' heads that you weren't even tangentially aware of. It is frustrating when a scene refuses to end, but typically I find it's a good thing because it means that my backbrain has taken the opportunity to bring forward underlying character and plot points that the story really needed to come to the surface.

dodger_winslow December 4 2007, 05:41:57 UTC

Oh yeah, they were definately talking to me. I'm much happier with the 15 page version, I was just getting tired of it re-writing itself every time I read it.

But you're absolutely right ... they had something to say that wasn't getting said, so it was going to keep re-writing itself until they got a chance to say it.

gwendolyngrace December 2 2007, 15:13:03 UTC

All I have to say is what others have said, which is that often the transitional stuff allows for greater development and you may find that the reason it's grown so large is that there's a lot more going on than you realized at first, and you're using this moment to lay it out so that you can use it (or refer to it) later.

That said, if you really feel it's dragging the pace, look at it again and see if there's any part of the conversation that can be moved to a later time in the story. If not, if it all has to be there, leave it.

That's the beauty of written fiction - we don't have to trim to a 39 minute timeslot!

dodger_winslow December 4 2007, 05:46:41 UTC

Oh, there's WAY more going on there now than there was in the original version. TBT, the original version WAS a transition scene where now the scene is both a balance counterweight to the conversation John is about to have with Sammy, and also a setup for that scene with necessary justifications to clarify why John has the conversation with Sammy that he must have to move the story along ( ... )