Today, I wrapped up the scene where my hero gets into a mysterious carriage that her best friend promises will take her safety and then jumped to the start of the scene where they arrive at that “safety.” In the middle, I had to plan the second scene, but I am trying to take a more relaxed, less detailed/restrictive approach.
For this scene plan, I focused on the most important event/action of the scene as well as the POV character’s emotional response. I didn’t try to prescriptively block out a seven-step arc for it, which has gotten me in trouble with unnecessary length in the past.
Already, I think these two scenes are an improvement for me. In the past, I might have described the whole carriage ride, thinking that I had to give a play-by-play, even if there was no particular story event or change that happened in between. But now that I’m able to recognize boarding the carriage and arriving as two separate scenes that each have a single story event, I was able to write them separately and cut the fluff.
I’m also trying to enjoy the writing process a little more and not overthink my word choice. That’s a little harder. I’m still not feeling comfortable or getting into flow with the writing, but I hope that will come as I stay more consistent about writing.