I’m still in my week of sleeping in. I don’t know if that’s the reason, but I feel better in general and have been better able to handle the stress that comes up at work and also not bring it home, so I am better with my family. It is kind of disappointing that not writing has had this kind of positive impact. . . I still want to be a full-time writer and I don’t want writing to feel like the reason I’m under stress.
In the meantime, I’m continuing to read The Scene Book. I already know I’m going to have to go back through it a second time and probably take notes. It continues to strike me with information that seems simple but is profound. Like today – I’ve heard the advice before that every scene is action and reaction, but I always thought that meant two actions. Today’s reading made it clear to me for the first time that the “reaction” is the character’s emotional reaction to what happened.
Maybe that’s something everyone else knew, but for me, it was a lightbulb moment. One of many.
While I am realizing as I read that all of my scenes have been pretty poorly written, for the first time, that realization is not coming with a sense of disappointment and failure, but with a little bit of hope that maybe I can improve.