On Writing & Storytelling: UPDATE – Phase One of Writing Chapter 10, Scene Two Ends…Phase Two Begins Tomorrow

Late Afternoon, Tuesday, July 25, 2023, Lithia, Florida

Hi, there! I am back to give you a quick update on the progress of my journey as a first-time novelist. Not a terribly long or detailed update – it’s almost 5 PM and I’m a bit tired, after all – but an update nonetheless.

Well, I took a two-hour long break. I thought about just resting for one hour, but my mind balked when I thought about starting to work at 1 PM. I’ve been advised by other writer friends that “forcing” myself to write when I’m not ready is neither productive nor enjoyable. I know from previous experience that this is true, so I waited till 2 PM to begin the task of finishing the phone conversation between Jim and Maddie in a “set in 2000” scene for Reunion: Coda.

Now, obviously, a scene written in the minimalist style of a screenplay (and without much of the stuff I’d write in a true screenplay) is going to be sparse (wordcount wise) compared to the prose style I use in writing fiction. But I needed to get past the mental block re Scene Two, Chapter 10 anyway I could, and because it’s dialogue-heavy, I chose to write it first as a script, then later rewrite it in the same way as the rest of Reunion: Coda.

Thus, when I say I’ve finished the rough draft of this particular section, don’t think I’m raising a premature Mission Accomplished sign and that I can move on to the next scene. I still need to go to my Scratch Sheet for Coda file, copy/paste the scene from Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 onto it, then edit and revise what I wrote yesterday and today in Novel Format instead of what I call Barebones Movie Script Format.

But, if you feel like being celebratory, you can raise a glass and offer a toast to the end of this preliminary phase in the writing process.