Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

I made it to OH. Rocket is happy to see me. Shingles are all over the place. most of my porch is falling in. I need to text all this nonsense to my landlords.

I have no real writing thoughts but I DO have a question. How do you handle the scenes that won't leave you alone even if they are nowhere near where you are in the story? I have a habit of playing them in my head for weeks/months/years until I finally get to that place in the story/series but by then I'm tired of them and they don't feel new or exciting any more. I'd like to find a better way.

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Comments

[falkner]

If I find myself obsessed with a specific scene, I will write down a detailed outline for later (and sometimes come back to add additional notes), because I know that inevitably all the replaying-it-in-my-head ends up with me tweaking it here and there and not always for the better. If I think of one scene for too long over and over I can end up making "edits" to it just to give it some novelty in my head, which can end up derailing the original intent of that scene.

[lucy_roman]

I write them down in a separate notebook and then add them to the story when I get to that point. I will end up changing things sometimes if they need changing though.

[barbaratp]

Eu costumo escrever o que penso de alguma forma marcando onde estará na história e por fim deixo de pensar nisso senão vou me cansar e abandonar o uso dela por causa da falta de novidade depois de tanto pensar. Às vezes quando vou escrever e vejo o que deixei marcado lá opto por até mesmo remover o que havia escrito antes e mudar algumas coisas ou manter o que já havia planejado a depender do meu humor e de como no fim a fic fluiu.

[dr_zook]

Crossing my fingers for a quick fixing of your abode!

Whenever I'm hit with a scene like that I'm just writing it down to get it out of my system and be able to get back to it when/if it fits. Sometimes this scene is actually not meant for that story, and it's the important thing to realize it instead of forcing them to belong to each other. Good luck for your scene!

[ysilme]

Glad to hear you made it back safe and Rocket is appreciative, but boo to the state of the house. Crossed fingers that there might be as little hassle about it as possible.
For me it's also plot points or just certain story events. No matter what it is, I write it down to get it out of my head, otherwise this might also block the whole way of getting there.
It doesn't matter if I'm using them later as I put them down, or at all, but it seems once my brain knows they're preserved it can continue on its usual path.
It still happens fairly regularly that once I come to those scenes or parts at the place where they're supposed to, I have a hard time to get them right; more often than not this is a point in a story where I stall for an unreasonable amount of time, or might even give up for the time being. But at least I already have what led up to that part in the story... ;Op