Order

As in the order of things. The writing of them, more specifically. I like to start at chapter 1 page 1 and move swiftly (or at least move) from there. So here I am, writing chapter 1. Then I rewrote it to have a little more umph to it. OK, Check.

Chapter 2. This is where I discovered I'm not as orderly as I thought. Yes, once in a while I have a flash of writer-brilliance and a scene several pages/chapters away magically materializes on my computer screen, needing very little editing once I get to that actual part. I love those moments, they make me all warm and fuzzy and think 'Hey, I am a writer!'

But I digress. Chapter 2 was going and going and going, and once I hit chapter 3, I realized nothing in chapter 2 needed to be there, or at least most of all 7 pages. What's a good writer to do? Naturally, I panicked. Why oh why? I'd spend days (hours at least) doing all that writing and dialog-ing and planning how to get my characters from A to B, and suddenly I realized no. It didn't work. It was all...junk.

Telling not showing. I mean literally telling. Like why the hero and his BFF were talking in front of the building they were supposed to be going into when they could've had this conversation any place/time from the moment they left their home, boarded the train, taken the taxi, arrived. Sure, it wasn't a conversation for other's ears, and people are so nosy no matter where or when, but come on! Go inside already! Why are you talking out here like a pair of idiots casing the joint, and badly at that?

Sigh

So chapter 2 now has less nothingness and more dialog. I wonder, upon umpteenth reading, how much of that dialog will be scrapped and how much will be merged with chapter 3.