Writing is fun. Sometimes. When some writers get into the "zone", it is possible for them to write whole chapters in one go. Perhaps you’ve had similar experiences. It’s a good day for writing; you feel good about your characters; and before you know it, you’ve gotten several hundred pages typed up. (Okay, maybe not several hundred, but perhaps 10+ pages).



But the next morning, you wake up, and suddenly the brilliant stuff you wrote yesterday feels empty. The jokes don’t seem quite so funny. The dialogue is wooden. The scenes don’t add up. What now?



Sounds like you need to do some rewriting.



But, wait! What exactly are you going to rewrite? Should you cut out that paragraph or not? Is the new character you introduced really a good character, or someone who should go?



To answer these questions, you have to know where your story is going.



Read what you’ve written, and ask yourself these questions:



1. What does this scene/character do for my story?

Is this a random segment that does nothing to move the plot along? Are your characters sitting around discussing the pros and cons of various brands of coffee for three pages? If so, it needs to go.



2. Why is this scene/character here?

Does this go from somewhere to somewhere? Does this set up a problem or conflict? Does it wrap up a previous problem or conflict? If none of the above, does this do anything for the overall big picture of your story? If someone were to summarize your story, would this scene or character be included? It’s not necessary to have every word in your story mean something, but if you lay emphasis on one particular item or person, there has be a reason for the emphasis.



3. Does this scene/character flow well with the "voice" of this story?

Does it feel out of place? Is it logically possible for the character to be present at the time period you’ve set? For example, a Goth-rocker would not be present in ancient Rome unless a time machine happened to be available. People in the 80s would not be debating the merits of TiVo.



4. Why do you like (or dislike) this character/scene?

Sometimes a scene reads okay but just feels off. You can’t say why, but at times, a scene just rubs you the wrong way. Why put up with it? Get rid of the scene! Other times, the opposite can be true. You think a character’s joke is hilarious, so you put it in…and no one else gets it. You hate chicken salad, so you make your characters talk about how much they hate chicken salad for pages and pages. Sometimes asking yourself why you like or dislike a scene may help you make up your mind as to why it should stay or go.



It may be painful, sometimes very painful, to delete the scenes you’ve worked so hard on. But scenes and characters that bog down your story need to go sooner or later, and the longer you put off, the more attached you’ll get to the scenes, and the harder it will be to delete them in the end.



Writing Exercise: September

Take out a piece that you’ve finished in the past, and draw a "plot map". On another piece of paper, write out the events (not necessarily in chronological order, you can feel free to write "flashbacks" or "flash-forwards" as needed).



Once you’ve got your story down in broad strokes, you can easily see what parts of your tale are going nowhere. Edit or delete these parts.



Writing Exercise: October

Go through your photographs and find one that includes you. Take one that means something to you, or one that you particularly like. How were you feeling when the photograph was taken? Happy, sad, excited, nervous?



Write a piece that captures the emotion you felt at the time that the photo was taken. Just extract the emotion, not the memories attached to it. Do not write the events that led up to that photo, or the events that occurred after the photo was taken.




Bio: Elizabeth Chayne works as a writer and writing tutor. She can be reached at elizabethlchayne@gmail.com