Whenever I am having trouble writing a scene, I find one person (sometimes two, or three; I have 2-3 loyal betas who work as sounding boards and discussion-runners, who tell me when I'm over-thinking something) and then lay out EVERYTHING for them, and I do it in terms of goals and motivations
( ... )
But my biggest recommendation: JUST WRITE THROUGH IT. Seriously, do not re-write scenes, do not re-do, do not give into the impulse to nit-pick and try to get every scene exactly right.
This.
I'll add: don't re-read what you've already written unless you've genuinely forgotten some aspect you need. Perhaps glance over the last paragraph you wrote, to make sure you pick up in the right tense, right character voice, and so on, but don't start re-reading from the beginning. Reading isn't writing. Write what comes next. If that requires that a change be made to an earlier part, make a note to remind you to do that later, don't go back and change the earlier scene now.
Also consider whether you might just need a break from this fic. Perhaps stopping to write a cute little ficlet would get the creative juices flowing and give you a much needed sense of accomplishment?
Hee! Yeah I could do that, but with my luck then the little ficlet would start to get plot and I'd be grumbling my way through it. :D I'll try to stick to just going back a paragraph... because I know I'm being a doofus over it and still can't seem to make myself get past it. I also thought about just starting in the middle and skipping the part that is giving me trouble, then going back.
oh wow, thanks so much! I just keep staring at it and redoing then getting irked at myself. I think I will just start with placeholders and move on. God, that seems like such a simple bit of advice but I can see that it will help me a lot! THANK YOU!!!! <3<3
1- thanks. You were absolutely right. :D The cheerleader helped me not feel so crappy about what I was writing. And they were constructive enough to tell me the two parts that were just kind of lame.
2- exactly. I felt like I was kind of forcing it for the bigbang word count and I think that was a big problem.
3- This surprised me that this bothered me so very much. I didn't want to be a complete creeper and look up information... I mean I don't even know what two of the 'characters' look like in rl- I completely made up everything and used their names for my nefarious purposes. :D But yeah. squick (mostly) cured!
Thanks again for taking the time to help me! I really appreciate it.
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Thanks so much! <3
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This.
I'll add: don't re-read what you've already written unless you've genuinely forgotten some aspect you need. Perhaps glance over the last paragraph you wrote, to make sure you pick up in the right tense, right character voice, and so on, but don't start re-reading from the beginning. Reading isn't writing. Write what comes next. If that requires that a change be made to an earlier part, make a note to remind you to do that later, don't go back and change the earlier scene now.
Also consider whether you might just need a break from this fic. Perhaps stopping to write a cute little ficlet would get the creative juices flowing and give you a much needed sense of accomplishment?
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2- exactly. I felt like I was kind of forcing it for the bigbang word count and I think that was a big problem.
3- This surprised me that this bothered me so very much. I didn't want to be a complete creeper and look up information... I mean I don't even know what two of the 'characters' look like in rl- I completely made up everything and used their names for my nefarious purposes. :D But yeah. squick (mostly) cured!
Thanks again for taking the time to help me! I really appreciate it.
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