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Always Get Stuck Changing Scenes

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CaliforniaMelanie

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So a few times now I've started novels, but when I realized a basic idea would work better than a former one, I've needed to rewrite entire scenes. Currently the one I'm fighting with is 2300 words long, which isn't a ridiculous amount of copy but I...was so proud of it. Emphasis on "was"... :)

Because the thing is, I've thought of an alternative that might actually work better, yet I did feel like that scene was written so well. I hesitate to go back and change it, not only due to losing the writing (in the actual book - obviously I have another doc for "unused" scenes) but because I'm so afraid my first instinct may have been the better one.

How on earth do you decide? I'm sure I must not be the only person who had a change of heart in how to manage a new direction in a book. I'd love others' input on this. This sort of thing trips me up every single time. It's tripped me up for 30 years now and has kept me in the article writing business rather than holding a book in my hands with my own name on it.

Thanks in advance.
 

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This is a really interesting question, but it's difficult to give any general rules. Can you bring one example? What was the old direction, what was the new direction and what do you think caused that change of heart – some emotion, some event in your life, something someone said?
 

CaliforniaMelanie

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I think it's total attitude that I'm not sure of. I keep going from dark to light, not really sure. I think I may be Mary Sue-ing one of my MCs too much. I am kind of stuck on her personality, I think.

What keeps changing my mind is wanting to be dark & realistic, v. also wanting to sort of tell a fairy tale.

I think I may have hit on a compromise where I can keep the darker scene. One can actually flow into the other. I don't know why I didn't consider that they could both stay and both show different aspects of my characters. Maybe I'm actually not being dimensional enough. Nobody has just one across-the-board personality. We all have quirks. I think this MC could be both dark and light at times without changing the basic idea of the story.
 
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MaeZe

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I have a simple technique. I kill the darling but put it in a holding file. That way I don't stress about tossing a whole scene or chapter out because it's not completely gone. I can always pull it back in. And most of the time I don't.
 

CaliforniaMelanie

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Awesome...thanks to both of you. I have a second file and I'm putting "cut" scenes into it. And now I'm glad I did because I already figured out how I can put one back in. :D

I appreciate the info.
 

DanielSTJ

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Can't you write both and then include the best of both worlds?

Just a little thought. Hope this helps in some way! :)
 

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I've definitely had difficulty when replacing a scene I know worked in some way (opening scene hooked agents but needs to be changed for some reason; betas loved a scene, but it doesn't work with other revisions made), and it can be paralyzing. Sometimes it's paralyzed me to the point of not being able to fix it, but others, I eventually just worked through it. Usually I feel, while writing, that the new scene isn't as good as the old one, but eventually it becomes part of the story and I see its worth. I even had one novel where I changed the opening and asked critters which was better, and they thought the new one was better, even though I thought it hit a bunch of cliches.
 

Lawless

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I think it's total attitude that I'm not sure of. I keep going from dark to light

There is no reason why a character shouldn't have both "light" and "dark" traits. Also, people can occasionally do things out of their character and regret them later or wonder why they acted like that.

It can be fascinating at times when a character reveals a surprising side of herself to you. It kind of brings you closer to her, don't you think?
 

Fujuman

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So a few times now I've started novels, but when I realized a basic idea would work better than a former one, I've needed to rewrite entire scenes. Currently the one I'm fighting with is 2300 words long, which isn't a ridiculous amount of copy but I...was so proud of it. Emphasis on "was"... :)

Because the thing is, I've thought of an alternative that might actually work better, yet I did feel like that scene was written so well. I hesitate to go back and change it, not only due to losing the writing (in the actual book - obviously I have another doc for "unused" scenes) but because I'm so afraid my first instinct may have been the better one.

How on earth do you decide? I'm sure I must not be the only person who had a change of heart in how to manage a new direction in a book. I'd love others' input on this. This sort of thing trips me up every single time. It's tripped me up for 30 years now and has kept me in the article writing business rather than holding a book in my hands with my own name on it.

Thanks in advance.

I realized very recently that everything I write is going to have flaws. Not sure if the flaws are what is making you want to rewrite and scrap ideas for better ones, but what's helped me is sticking to the narrative direction I was headed in at first and maybe adding in my favorite parts of the new idea. That way you get one super idea instead of a good one you made to replace a not as good one.
 
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