At the end of my last writing session, I left my hero almost at the end of the scene following the Inciting Incident. She was about to discover the extent of the destruction to everything she has known in her life so far, and I thought that only a few words remained.
But, as I read back through the scene so far, I found places where it really needed to be fleshed out. I had described the action in places, but not my hero’s emotional response to it. So, I wanted to add that in to make it more human and to show her personality more. Between those additions and finishing off the scene, I added about 500 words, taking the story over the 10k mark!
I really like the process of going over my writing from the day before and polishing it before I move on. I have been avoiding that because this is my first story – no, that’s not right, I have finished (and trunked) stories before, but since I still haven’t finished a story that I find acceptable, I don’t trust myself yet. I am afraid that anything I write now might get trashed during revision, so I don’t want to spend too much time revising something that might not survive.
But even if it might not survive, if it makes more sense to me and feels better as a writer to revise the previous day’s words before starting today, then that is what I should be doing. I should be making that my process.
Of course, it would be nice if I had more time to dedicate to writing each day – or more time at once. If I adopt this process, I run the risk of reducing my word counts even further. But I should also save myself some time in the editing phase since my first draft will be more solid. So, that should work out in the end.
I’m going to give it a try.