Moving past the first draft and into the rewriting stage is great, for the most part. But, as with most things in life, the prize has its price.

When I was just trying to get to THE END, relentlessly banging out scenes to bridge the landmarks in my beat sheet, at least I had an objective, concrete measure of each session’s progress: the shear number of words typed. Some days were better than others, but I always knew where I stood.

But the rewrite is a different story…

Much of my time these days is spent staring at a scene and brainstorming how to fix it. How can it be more dramatic, gripping, moving, fitting to the plot, logical, and eloquent? And how can it peal another layer off this character?

This kind of process is very hard on the psyche. It’s difficult to feel productive when I’ve just spent three hours thinking (along with YouTubing, checking in on social media, texting, etc.), decided I was still clueless on how to repair the scene, then just packed it in for the day.

I’m attempting to create some good habits in these circumstances. I’ve started typing out exactly what the problems are with each faulty scene, expressing what the purpose of the scene is, and then making a mini-outline of its most vital beats. This has been a good way to at least be doing something, and it gives a good road map for the broad strokes, but I’m afraid it’s not the be-all answer. The devil is in the details; those little story bits that continue to elude me. What should they say to each other here? She she slap him or kiss him? Should he draw a pistol, or just give a really mean glare?

I’m still at a loss for how to maintain a consistent, satisfying level of output. Some sessions (yesterday, for example) go great. The inspiration flows like wine, and I manage to significantly elevate a scene. The process is invigorating and has a snowball effect on my motivation to keep writing. I suppose my focus ought to be on discovering the source of this exaltation and harnessing it; making it reproducible on command. But, I’m sure if such a thing were possible, some writer, somewhere, would’ve done it by now, and would be selling it in bottles. But it’s still a worthy target, I think, as long as it doesn’t take away from actual writing time.

So, what do you think? What habits and practices can you recommend to make some headway every time? Let me know below!