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It sounds like you're something of a discovery writer (aka pantser). You wrote lots and lots of material, and now you have to carve away everything which doesn't fit your plot. If you are a discove...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-13T12:00:29Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/17370 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T04:16:24Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/17370 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
It sounds like you're something of a discovery writer (aka pantser). You wrote lots and lots of material, and now you have to carve away everything which doesn't fit your plot. If you are a discovery writer rather than a planner, then removing all the parts which don't belong there is part of the process of writing your first draft. Keep all the cool bits in a slush file. Maybe you can extract dialogue or ideas to reinsert later, either in this piece or a later one. Maybe you can just reread the individual scenes for your own enjoyment. Ultimately, every word in your finished product should serve your finished product — not be your entertainment. Making the receptionist the confidante is an excellent example of making a boring-but-necessary character/scene into something important and plot-serving. (good job!) See if there's anything you can pull out of your cut scenes which can be similarly used to improve other boring-but-necessary bits.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2015-05-20T21:09:20Z (almost 9 years ago)
Original score: 6