So my regular writing group did a new thing this week, and in addition to our regular Wednesday meeting, we met at a bar first thing Sunday morning. (Obviously, we’re calling it Write Church.)

And it was just really nice. It was definitely more informal and chattier than our normal Wednesday meets, but it was really nice to have a second focused writing session in a week, and it was great to see everyone twice in a week when I usually just see them once.

Progress on HH … well, it continues. It’s around the 40k mark. I’m having issues with the chapter I’m currently writing, as it’s mostly delving into new territory and laying out some background, and since I’m not excited about it, it’s taking a long time to get sorted out*. But I’m making progress, and I just got to the point where I’m introducing a new character. If nothing else, I now have general background arcs for my two younger characters, one of whom is very concerned about getting in touch with their family, and one who is concerned about what they are going to be when they grow up. And if this next little chunk goes okay, I’ve got an interesting librarian stationed in a moldy library to work with too.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to tackle writing the things that aren’t fun for me, specifically when I know they’re going to get cut. When I’m working in Scrivener, I usually just abandon the section I’m on, start a new section, and move on with my life. But I’ve mostly been working on my tablet, and since Scrivener isn’t available on Android, I’m back to using Google Drive. I don’t know what it is, but I mostly** feel that when I’m working in a single document that I should write chronologically, and not skip things.

Things that are Not Fun and Destined To Be Cut usually follow a pattern for me … they’re transition scenes of some sort, written to bridge a gap between a plot point and another plot point. Frequently, they’re exploration sequences, things like ‘I wonder what this character actually needs’ and ‘what would they do as part of their normal day?’. Sometimes, they’re just ‘well, I need to have a different viewpoint character as a break here before I do another chapter with the character I was just with’.

In this case, the chapter that’s slowing me down is all three. I’m finding out some interesting things as I’m pushing through it–but overall, I’m not sure it’s worth it, and I should consider a better way to deal with this type of things in the future.

 

 

*This is a GREAT indication that it’ll get cut in the next edit.

**I do have a few thousand words that have been abandoned at the bottom of the doc and that I don’t intend to use for anything, but they also keep me from having to write into the void of an empty page, so it’s alright.