Writing the Novel Scene by Scene

When you're writing a novel scene by scene, the general visualization process can be mapped as follows:

I know the picture isn't very clear; click on it and your browser will give you a much more detailed depiction.

Anyway, the general idea is that what you've written is mapped out in a winding line which is soon muddled by all the detailed visuals and possibilities for what you want in the next immediate scene. But then as you move down it gets more and more ambiguous and what exact scenes will show up in the story, but all the chunks represent motifs and details you know you'll have to include no matter what goes on.

I finally drew this after spending a few hours on just one page today for Alan's book. In my head I'm getting so much farther than I expect, but on the paper I'm moving at a snail's pace. I've got to think about each possibility before I use it, throw some out. I'll still have to write out a ton of drafts and write at least a dozen possibilities, but my mind can clear out at least a few hundred of them before I write. So there's at least an hour of visualization before I relaly dig into the writing, and as a single scene progresses and I get a clearer idea of what I'm doing each writing session, that visualization process takes less time. It's a tricky thing, knowing before you tackle each scene that you'll have to go back to the drawing board when it comes to imagining possibilities, but I think it's my favorite part of writing because when it happens consistently I think that's my brain telling me that I've currently got the best grip on the story that I'm going to get, and to have fun with it.

Plus it allows you to see motifs. When I out my possibilities, I notice that so many of the paths I think about involve violence, emotional outbursts or escape from violence. But if I have more characters involved, most of the paths get caught up in humorous dialogue. So sometimes it's very painful and sometimes it's a big hassle, but it's nice to be able to identify how I write.

There's no one I can speak to. I haven't spoken to anyone in. There's no one I can speak to.

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