As I moved into a new scene today, I’m scraping my memory for my plan for what was supposed to come next. This is the last of the scenes I had somewhat pictured in my cut-scene sequence that comes between the inciting incident and the first plot point, but all the detailed planning I did about the mood of the scene, how the action was supposed to rise and fall – I’ve lost all of that.
All I have left in my memory is the bare bones: Hero and Best Fried try to escape from the ruins of the castle before the soldiers find them and also pick up the Jester.
But despite that, so far the scene is going well enough, which is an indication that maybe I don’t need as detailed a plan as I’ve been making so far (the planning might just be another form of distraction). Before I sit down to write, I’ve been making a few notes to myself about what has to happen in the scene, and picturing how that might unfold. So far, that’s been enough.
If I can keep this up, it’s going to dramatically speed up my scene-planning process.