I really like this scene

January 20, 2014

It’s a weird feeling, reading your own work and finding yourself being swept away. I was editing a scene earlier and found myself thinking “Wow, I really like this scene.” It’s strange to suddenly stop being an author going about his craft and become partially a reader again, just a reader enjoying the ride.

To be fair, no scene has survived this many drafts without me liking it. Even the ones that aren’t super fun, the ones that “need” to be there for plot or characterization or world building, even those I unfailingly like, because the ones I didn’t like were cut long ago. It’s just that while I like those scenes, there are others I really like. Some scenes speak, some scenes sing, and others belt out a beautiful ballad at the top of their lungs. And when you read a wonderful scene that you wrote, when you remember sitting at your computer slaving away at it…

That’s a remarkable feeling.

Sorry, I’ll stop bragging now. It’s just, times like these are what make me think I might actually know what I’m doing. They help make up for all the other times I’m sure I don’t, at least in part.

My combo counter: Editing chain, 9 days. Writing chain, 0 days.