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I have been stalled on "Secrets" for a couple weeks, but I think I unblocked myself today. The problem is that I'd written Ginny and Xanthe's conversation into a sort of swampy mess where they were working at thematic cross-purposes, and I couldn't figure out how to escape without three-to-five pages of dialogue in which two twelve-year-old girls worked out a coherent ethical philosophy of guilt, choice, and action vs. inaction, which would have been A) ridiculous, B) preachy and egotistical, C) out-of-character, even with all the ethical musing I've already worked into this story, D) boring as fuck-all, E) maddening to contemplate writing, and F) impossible given the time-constraints on this conversation, which is happening during a fifteen-minute break in the middle of a Double Herbology lesson.
So today I snipped the last five paragraphs and went in a different direction instead, which is still retreading old ground in some ways, but is at least going somewhere despite that.
And the retreading is kind of realistic, you know? You don't get over what happened to Ginny in CoS in two days. She's still processing, and each time she goes over the same ground, it's at a slightly different angle and hits a few new points in with the old. I may well end up trimming a lot of stuff in this chapter (because readability trumps realism, and I don't want to get too boring -- there are limits to how much emotional processing I can inflict on readers, even in a story as internally-focused as "Secrets") but it's probably better to put it all out there and then cut back than to skip over things that might be important.
Now I just need Xanthe to respond, and then I can have Professor Sprout call the class back to order and cut to the next scene. Finally.
5,800 words and counting!
So today I snipped the last five paragraphs and went in a different direction instead, which is still retreading old ground in some ways, but is at least going somewhere despite that.
And the retreading is kind of realistic, you know? You don't get over what happened to Ginny in CoS in two days. She's still processing, and each time she goes over the same ground, it's at a slightly different angle and hits a few new points in with the old. I may well end up trimming a lot of stuff in this chapter (because readability trumps realism, and I don't want to get too boring -- there are limits to how much emotional processing I can inflict on readers, even in a story as internally-focused as "Secrets") but it's probably better to put it all out there and then cut back than to skip over things that might be important.
Now I just need Xanthe to respond, and then I can have Professor Sprout call the class back to order and cut to the next scene. Finally.
5,800 words and counting!
