The Line between Edits and Writing

I had a section in chapter 25 of ‘Tomorrow Wendell’, that my editor wanted to see not as ‘they talked’ but the actual dialogue. Seems she really likes the interplay I manage to create between the two character in question–can’t take that as anything but praise.

She also wanted to give the bit under this section more suspense and tension.

I got the chapter back a number of days ago and had worked out all the rest of the edits but kept getting stuck on these two points. I would edit other chapters, get in the mind set, and go back to 25 rearing to go- only to stop dead and shake my head.

This morning, on a whim, I decided to tackle it another way. Instead of treating it as editing, I went at it as my morning writing session. I still have to finish up the new chapter 28 and have plenty of work to do on ‘Corrupted Souls’ but chapter 25 had really started to bother me- a chain around my neck.

It worked. Using my writing time to approach the problem, instead of my editing time, gave me the freedom to step away from the rest of the chapter and just write a scene.

I’ll have to remember this trick, for I am certain, this will not be the last time I run into a scene, in one of my books, that needs to be rewritten.

Filed under: Publishing, Writing Tagged: Corrupted Souls, current work in progress, edits, Jonathan Alvey, muse, novel, paranormal private investigator, plot, scene, Tomorrow Wendell, Urban Fantasy, White Dragon Black Series, writing