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Need help with writing a part...

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Need help with writing a part...

Postby JGC137 » Wed Jan 28, 2009 8:35 pm

Ok I'm sure i'm not the only one to ever have to deal with this, but when your writing do you ever get to a part that your not sure what to write, like its a 'run thru part' but you have to write it to get to a part where you really want to write and are ready for? Does this make any sense? lol
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Re: Need help with writing a part...

Postby spknoevl » Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:14 am

I think we all labor over every word in every scene, so its something we all deal with a one time or another. I'm actually going through the same thing at the moment; trying to write a scene that I am inserting into my novel. Sometimes the words just flow freely and other times I may spend a couple of hours writing one paragraph. I sometimes find the best thing to do for those transitional scenes that I'm unsure of is to write them in a very rough draft and come back to them either in a few days, or even during a later revision.
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Re: Need help with writing a part...

Postby Qray » Sat Jan 31, 2009 3:17 am

Same here. I'll either write an outline of what I want to happen, or just ---and more here--- then come back to it later.
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Re: Need help with writing a part...

Postby Fel_Editor » Thu Jan 28, 2010 11:20 am

I find the best approach is to know exactly what you want to express in the scene and don't write anything else. if it's just transition to another scene cut it. Skillful use of ellipsis is one of the hallmarks of a great writer.

If you need to establish some precondition for another plot device later just do it as efficiently as possible and don't waste the reader's time. Check it for pacing and add mood or character dev if you need to slow it down a bit. If it ain't critical you don't need it (except for pacing).
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Re: Need help with writing a part...

Postby Spiderkeg » Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:16 am

Many writers end the scene, begin writing a new scene elsewhere, end that new scene, and return to the previous scene with the characters already reaching their destination. One way to remove the need to write transition, while also presenting to the reader additional story progression elsewhere in the meantime.
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Re: Need help with writing a part...

Postby berry » Tue Oct 04, 2011 4:17 am

I know exactly what you mean, it happens to me on a regular basis and often gets me stuck. Usually I have an idea of what needs to go there so I'll do it in the form of an info dump just so I can move on with the story then I go back and decide how to transform the info dump into a scene or several scenes that work in the story. The worst is when I know what the scene should be but I don't feel like I can do it justice. Neil Gaiman said that before he wrote 'The Graveyard book' he had had the story in mind for about 20 years, he kept thinking that he wasn't good enough at writing to do it justice, but after a while he thought 'I'm not going to get better than this' and so he just got on with it. It's very good by the way.
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