# Tips for "Speedwriting" Tedious Scenes in the First Draft?



## Netardapope (Jun 26, 2017)

So, a couple of my recent posts have followed a trend. It is mainly about finding practical solutions for skipping boring scenes in the First Draft. So far, infodumps have come in handy for progressing boring bits in a plot, but there  are other aspects which still keep bogging me down from the main story. The reason this is all happening is because I got caught up in a subplot that was way longer than I expected.

As a result, I want advice on tedious scenes. I know that it's ok to have a "trashy" session, but this isn't specific enough to satisfy me. What particular techniques do you use when you start a trashy session?

1. How do you handle dialogue in a trashy writing session?

2. How do you handle critical plot points that have to be introduced during a trashy writing session?

3. How do you manage description in a trashy session?

4. How do you manage character development when you basicially skimmed through a major part of a character's arc? Is this even something reccomended for a First Draft?

5. What do you do that allows you to get your mind off how crappy your writing is in that particular instance?

General questions like these are the kind I'm seeking answers for. In a sense, the reason I'm so paranoid about this is because I abandoned my last WIP due to structural reasons in the First Draft. I stopped caring about the story, the characters, and every writing session was painful. And I abandoned it once I was reasonably close to its end. I've finished a first draft before, and in a sense, this is a remake of the first draft I finished. I thought I was invincible because I had already finished a draft once, but I was wrong.

I'm far from reaching that breaking point in my current story, but I want to be safe. I want to be sure that the tactics I employ for making the First Draft easier aren't tactics that break the structure of the story. You may choose to answer all, some, or one of the questions I listed above. So long as you feel you have advice, an anecdote, or even a bit of sympathy, I'll be glad to hear what you have to say.

A great deal of thanks, scribes. This forum reminds me that I'm not the only guy busting his head in front of a computer every day


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## psychotick (Jun 26, 2017)

Hi,

There should be no tedious scenes! If you think you've got one - somethings wrong. I'd suggest going back to the start and rewriting it.

Personally my approach is to write, rewrite, and then right again times a hundred. And then you can start the beta read and editor. Somehwere along the way anything that's tedious should hopefully get sorted.

Cheers, Greg.


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## Russ (Jun 26, 2017)

"Try to leave out the parts readers tend to skip." - Elmore Leonard


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## Netardapope (Jun 26, 2017)

I feel there was a fault in the way I phrased this thread. By tedious, I don't mean the scenes are unnecessary or boring, because interesting things are happening in them. By tedious, I mean that the scenes are just difficult to write at the current moment.

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## Heliotrope (Jun 26, 2017)

Sometimes I will write out the whole scene in dialogue with no actions. It helps me just to put it all in conversation, which can come fast and furious in my head. If you have no other character for your mc to dialogue with, then give him something else to talk to. An animal walking by. A mouse who happens to be gnawing on a chunk of bread in the same room. A pile of bones. Hamlet's best soliloquy came from talking to a skull. 

I give myself ten minutes. I set a timer and type nonstop until the timer goes, never stopping to fix errors. 

I allow myself to surprise myself. Don't stick to the script. Set the timer and let 'her rip. You may find something pours out you never expected. Use it. If you feel yourself getting bored, consider how you could switch it up to make it more interesting. Maybe, at the worst possible moment, the worst possible thing happens.


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## Incanus (Jun 26, 2017)

There may not be anything like a 'great' solution to this.  But think ahead a little bit.  What happens if you skip or skimp doing the tedious work the whole way through?  It seems to me you'll reach a point where there's nothing left to do except the tedious work.  How inspired to finish are you going to be then?

My advice is to mix in the tedious work with all the other work.  Leave at least a few 'fun' things undone that you can look forward to.  Maybe it's a little like acting like a parent and making your child clean up their room before they can play games.

Not that what I'm doing works any better than anyone else, but I don't take any short cuts when drafting or editing.  I just do the next thing that needs doing, as well as I can do it at that time.

Good luck!


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## Demesnedenoir (Jun 26, 2017)

I've no great secret. I either slug through it, or if I'm truly flummoxed, I just skip ahead to a different scene/chapter/POV or whatever.


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## Aurora (Jun 26, 2017)

Netardapope said:


> As a result, I want advice on tedious scenes. I know that it's ok to have a "trashy" session, but this isn't specific enough to satisfy me. What particular techniques do you use when you start a trashy session?
> 
> 1. How do you handle dialogue in a trashy writing session?
> 
> ...


First, can I ask what you mean by trashy writing session? I'm going to answer your questions to the best of my ability and I hope it's of some use to you. 

1. If you mean a word vomit session, then no, I don't do that. Everyone has their own process, and I by no means know what yours is but I will share mine. 

My stories start out months in advance, marinating in my head. I have more stories than I can possibly tell in this lifetime. They percolate in my mind for a long time and I rotate through the ideas as I feel they're ready. I'll write one while at the same time I'm thinking/fantasizing about the others I will write. When I finish the WIP, I'll start a new one that feels ready to me. If it's not, then I put it aside and choose another idea.

There's a master list on my computer for all my 2017 projects. I check them off as I finish. Some, I've pushed to 2018 for reasons. What does this mean? That I write A LOT. Like, a ton. My daily word count will be 3-5k depending on my schedule. The reason why I can do this is because the stories cook in my brain for months before I write them. Several of them at a time. So when I finally write them, they aren't vomit sessions but actual story that comes out. Vomit sessions aren't useful for me, but I have a writer friend who does 3-4 drafts of these sessions to get closer to the final one and that's what works for him. Different people, different ways of working. Ask yourself if this works for you or if it hinders you. I'm of the opinion that everyone should do what works for them, just make sure it's helping you grow as a writer.

2. My advice to you on this is to really study story architecture. It will help you understand so much of how pacing and storytelling works as a whole to captivate the reader. I use intuition and introduce plot points when it feels right according to what's happening. I use different view point characters to bring these plot points to the surface. It gets intricate when writing a main plot plus a subplot and I do get stuck sometimes. When that happens, I take time to think about it by either tending to something else in my life or fooling around in another project. I try not to take longer than 3-4 days to get unstuck, since I like to be productive. Anyway, learning how these points accelerate the plot will help you in so many ways and eventually it'll become second nature.

3. Description is my favorite. I throw it all in. Every writing session gets the best out of me, this includes description. I treat my drafts as the only drafts, so even though I go back and add things in or take things out, I put everything in that I can 'see' from the get go. Sometimes I see a lot, other times I don't. Depends. At the end of each writing day, I keep note of what I need to fix or where there wasn't enough description. I try to think about the reader and what I can give her. Would more description of setting help her feel immersed? Does she need to know less of this or more of that? I go back and fix things if that's the case. So no, it's not all done in one sitting.

4. Again, keeping notes helps here. If a character isn't developing well, I think about her or him more throughout the rest of the day. I focus on that character's motivations. Part of why I write so fast is because it helps me feel immensely connected to the story and characters. I get obsessed with them. Characters develop as the story takes place and I know more about them the further the story deepens. Towards the 3/4 mark, I already know how the story will end and how I need to wrap up the character arcs. Also, I focus more on reader satisfaction and how pissed I would be if I ended with the characters a certain way and so forth.

5. If a part of the manuscript is crappy, I delete it and write it over again. I don't keep anything that doesn't fit, sounds weird, or doesn't move the story forward. I used to hate doing this. Truth is, if you hadn't guessed, I basically write pulp fiction. So there's no time to rewrite crappy things. They get deleted and I start fresh. It's improved my writing a lot because I've learned intuitively what works for the types of stories I write. 

Anyway, this way is not for everyone. I hope this helps and I wish you good luck in your writing.


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## Mytherea (Jun 26, 2017)

Okay, so, first and foremost, I--personally--try to avoid "trashy" writing sessions. They're just writing sessions, and some days I write a lot and other days I don't. If I brand them trashy, then it's only a few steps for my brain to go "bad writing session" then to "failure" and ending with "you suck." Whereas if I keep it emotionally neutral, that it just _is_, it helps me, personally. This is just me, though. I also find it helps if I don't view my draft as a draft. Again, it just is. It's also mutable. All things written today can be changed tomorrow, and very often, what I hate today, what I think is eye-searingly awful, turns out not to be quite as bad as I think it is the next day. And when it is awful, I can fix it. Again, works for me. Like Aurora, I don't word-vomit; I tend to know what I'm doing and where I'm going and if I don't, I sit back and ask myself why. But I've never been the kind of writer who figures it out as they go along. But, for example, everyone in my in person critique group is, so they figure things out in the moment. 

Now, since I'm unpublished, I have the luxury of being able to take a break when I hit a wall. So I do. Usually for a day, but sometimes two or three. I read. I watch TV. I play the endlessly therapeutic Skyrim and kill some stuff. I go to work and get frustrated with the public. Then I go back. Often, whatever it was that was blocking me sorted itself, and I continue on. On those days where that doesn't work, I ask, one, is this scene necessary? Am I getting lost on a tangent and that's why it's not working? If it is necessary, then I ask if I'm missing something. Maybe I forgot to establish something and my writer-sense is kicking in and telling me something's not right. Or maybe there's just something missing and the scene really is boring, so I need to throw something else in the mix. If none of these options are clicking, then I usually reread earlier parts of the project and try to enchant myself again. Remind myself why I want to see it to the end. Which works for me. 

Like, I just had a section (well, still writing the section, actually) where for days, I just puttered around, fleshing out the dialogue, adding things, cutting things, all because I really didn't know how to introduce a character and a plot element at the end of the scene. It's a major one, I know it's necessary, I just...didn't know how to introduce it. So I took a break, read a book, and I don't know if it was the act of reading or the act of letting it sit, but earlier today, I realized what I needed to do to get things rolling, and now I'm unstuck. 

To answer 4, though, I try really, really hard not to get into that position. But then, I'm an outliner, so I usually have a rough idea where it's going and what the character's arc is going to be long before I really start. Which isn't necessarily helpful. :/


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## Annoyingkid (Jun 27, 2017)

Netardapope said:


> I feel there was a fault in the way I phrased this thread. By tedious, I don't mean the scenes are unnecessary or boring, because interesting things are happening in them. By tedious, I mean that the scenes are just difficult to write at the current moment.
> 
> Sent from my SM-J700M using Tapatalk



You have it completely the wrong way round. You don't speed write through difficult scenes, you spend additional time on them. At the end of the day, you're either interested in getting it right or not. Period.


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## Netardapope (Jun 27, 2017)

Mytherea said:


> Okay, so, first and foremost, I--personally--try to avoid "trashy" writing sessions. They're just writing sessions, and some days I write a lot and other days I don't. If I brand them trashy, then it's only a few steps for my brain to go "bad writing session" then to "failure" and ending with "you suck." Whereas if I keep it emotionally neutral, that it just _is_, it helps me, personally. This is just me, though. I also find it helps if I don't view my draft as a draft. Again, it just is. It's also mutable. All things written today can be changed tomorrow, and very often, what I hate today, what I think is eye-searingly awful, turns out not to be quite as bad as I think it is the next day. And when it is awful, I can fix it. Again, works for me. Like Aurora, I don't word-vomit; I tend to know what I'm doing and where I'm going and if I don't, I sit back and ask myself why. But I've never been the kind of writer who figures it out as they go along. But, for example, everyone in my in person critique group is, so they figure things out in the moment.
> 
> Now, since I'm unpublished, I have the luxury of being able to take a break when I hit a wall. So I do. Usually for a day, but sometimes two or three. I read. I watch TV. I play the endlessly therapeutic Skyrim and kill some stuff. I go to work and get frustrated with the public. Then I go back. Often, whatever it was that was blocking me sorted itself, and I continue on. On those days where that doesn't work, I ask, one, is this scene necessary? Am I getting lost on a tangent and that's why it's not working? If it is necessary, then I ask if I'm missing something. Maybe I forgot to establish something and my writer-sense is kicking in and telling me something's not right. Or maybe there's just something missing and the scene really is boring, so I need to throw something else in the mix. If none of these options are clicking, then I usually reread earlier parts of the project and try to enchant myself again. Remind myself why I want to see it to the end. Which works for me.
> 
> ...


I can see where this is coming from, but this could also be considered the crux of the issue. If it is true that anything I mess up can be changed later on, why should I bring my progress to a grinding halt in order to fix it at that moment? Why would I do that when it's perfectly feasible to just tie up all the plot threads once I'm at done with the end?

I know some people that can pull it off, and all the power to them, but I find the initial phase of writing is more about keeping up a rhythm until you finish the story. And then, once the tale is finished, all the polishing can be brought in through revision.

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## Mytherea (Jun 27, 2017)

Netardapope said:


> I can see where this is coming from, but this could also be considered the crux of the issue. If it is true that anything I mess up can be changed later on, why should I bring my progress to a grinding halt in order to fix it at that moment? Why would I do that when it's perfectly feasible to just tie up all the plot threads once I'm at done with the end?
> 
> I know some people that can pull it off, and all the power to them, but I find the initial phase of writing is more about keeping up a rhythm until you finish the story. And then, once the tale is finished, all the polishing can be brought in through revision.
> 
> Sent from my SM-J700M using Tapatalk



Ah, my apologies for not being clear. I meant it on a micro level, not a macro. If today, I feel like everything I touch turns to crap, then quite literally tomorrow, I go back and rework it (I usually reread and tweak the last few pages of what I'm working on to get myself back in the flow for what I will be working on in a given session), not in three months when I finish the whole project. In three months, it's probable that I'd have forgotten the specifics of what I needed to figure out, I'm no longer in the groove, things that were abstract concepts in my brains that I just couldn't figure out how to put down on paper have already faded, and I'm far more likely to become frustrated with it and give up. Whereas if I take the time, right now, to figure out what's stopping me, then I benefit in the long run. And I don't necessarily view taking a break as stopping. I may not physically be writing, but the problem solving part of my brain is constantly going, playing through scenarios, trying on different plot twists, different ways the scene could play out, adding a character, removing a character, and so on. I, personally, consider this writing as well, just preparation. Again, this is just me, though. I know people who are the complete opposite and if they stop, they completely stop, and the story had better be done. They think I'm completely bonkers.


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## Russ (Jun 27, 2017)

Netardapope said:


> I can see where this is coming from, but this could also be considered the crux of the issue. If it is true that anything I mess up can be changed later on, why should I bring my progress to a grinding halt in order to fix it at that moment? Why would I do that when it's perfectly feasible to just tie up all the plot threads once I'm at done with the end?
> 
> I know some people that can pull it off, and all the power to them, but I find the initial phase of writing is more about keeping up a rhythm until you finish the story. And then, once the tale is finished, all the polishing can be brought in through revision.
> 
> Sent from my SM-J700M using Tapatalk



This is one of those things were personal habits are king.  Some people cannot move on until the last section is in great shape, others are happy to vommit 400 pages and then go back and revise extensively.  You just need to discover the way that works best with you.

But you do have to be careful it is not a work avoidance thing, or to skip over too many of the hard parts.  If you bomb through your book writing all the fun stuff at breakneck pace and leaving the tedious until later, you end up looking at having to do ten tedious scenes back to back at the end, and that can be a morale killer.


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## Devor (Jun 27, 2017)

I drop into a scene-level outline mode when I'm struggling with a scene.  It reads like a script, right down to the * Character: How dare he?*
The big advantage here is that I can see the whole scene in like half a page and iron out any difficulties before I've written anything.


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## Netardapope (Jun 27, 2017)

Mytherea said:


> Ah, my apologies for not being clear. I meant it on a micro level, not a macro. If today, I feel like everything I touch turns to crap, then quite literally tomorrow, I go back and rework it (I usually reread and tweak the last few pages of what I'm working on to get myself back in the flow for what I will be working on in a given session), not in three months when I finish the whole project. In three months, it's probable that I'd have forgotten the specifics of what I needed to figure out, I'm no longer in the groove, things that were abstract concepts in my brains that I just couldn't figure out how to put down on paper have already faded, and I'm far more likely to become frustrated with it and give up. Whereas if I take the time, right now, to figure out what's stopping me, then I benefit in the long run. And I don't necessarily view taking a break as stopping. I may not physically be writing, but the problem solving part of my brain is constantly going, playing through scenarios, trying on different plot twists, different ways the scene could play out, adding a character, removing a character, and so on. I, personally, consider this writing as well, just preparation. Again, this is just me, though. I know people who are the complete opposite and if they stop, they completely stop, and the story had better be done. They think I'm completely bonkers.


Oh, I can see how that works. I also have nothing against breaks (maybe I'm biased because I just took a 3 day break myself [emoji53] ). 

I outline, but I guess I'm a bit more radical when it comes to forcing myself to write. Knowing me though, taking breaks can easily become chronic.

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## Netardapope (Jun 27, 2017)

Devor said:


> I drop into a scene-level outline mode when I'm struggling with a scene.  It reads like a script, right down to the * Character: How dare he?*
> The big advantage here is that I can see the whole scene in like half a page and iron out any difficulties before I've written anything.


That actually sounds kind of fun!

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## Netardapope (Jun 27, 2017)

Russ said:


> This is one of those things were personal habits are king.  Some people cannot move on until the last section is in great shape, others are happy to vommit 400 pages and then go back and revise extensively.  You just need to discover the way that works best with you.
> 
> But you do have to be careful it is not a work avoidance thing, or to skip over too many of the hard parts.  If you bomb through your book writing all the fun stuff at breakneck pace and leaving the tedious until later, you end up looking at having to do ten tedious scenes back to back at the end, and that can be a morale killer.


 This. I was also worried about this. So far, I've only been "Speedwriting" on too separate occasions. I try to do it only when absolutely necessary.

However, I'd be lying if I said I had the best judgements.

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## Demesnedenoir (Jun 27, 2017)

I had a scene the other day where I just wasn't in the groove (ok, editing book 1, working on the query and synopsis have knocked me way out of groove). It wasn't that I was writing poorly (IMO) so I just decided to plop it out in dialogue and... I just stopped. The information was important, but the storytelling was abyssmal. By which I mean the scene was poorly motivated. No tension. I planned tension, but to do it would feel forced. So, down comes the axe, off I go to another scene. While writing something unrelated plotwise, I figured out how to lace the info into another scene which will have greater motivation and tension surrounding it. If I'm bored writing it, I stop writing it, it's a horrible sign for the life expectancy of that scene.

A few days before I wrote an intro piece, and just got hungup on the details of what came next, so I skipped to how I knew the scene needed to end, once the end was on paper then everything in between became crystal clear. I've written one character straight through without chapter breaks for 70 pages before, and I've bounced all over the place before. I bounce more than I write straight through, but in the end it all works. Sometimes, staring into space for 10 minutes is useful too. Many an answer has come from riding the mower, the roar and vibration shaking my brain loose, I'm guessing.


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## Aurora (Jun 27, 2017)

Ok...so are you calling speed writing sessions trashy then? Can you do your best to focus on producing good story during those sessions? It's not about produing perfection; it's about producing cleaner work. Can you take the trashy out of it?


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## Penpilot (Jun 27, 2017)

> 1. How do you handle dialogue in a trashy writing session?



A lot of times it's all it is. As long as it moves things along, it's good enough. It's like a bowel movement.



> 2. How do you handle critical plot points that have to be introduced during a trashy writing session?



When I go into a scene. I generally know that in it I'll be handling, say, Plot A and Plot D, and that I'll be advancing each plot respectively from points D to E and from points H to I. As long as I know that, for the most part, the details of what happens inside that scene don't necessarily matter to the rest of the story. The next scene will continue on as if each of the plots has advanced, picking up from Plot A, point E, and Plot D, point I. The details of how they got there, I don't need to fuss too much about, at least not in the first draft.

When I get into draft 2, things like this obviously matter more. And what I find is that because I have a better idea of where things fit and where they're going, it's easier for me to play with these "trashy" scenes to try and make them better. Though, some times this process starts before I even finish the first draft. When I get ideas, I make notes in the scenes stating how the scene could be made better and what some possible better approaches may be.

A lot of times I end up combining "trashy" scenes together to condense plot revelation and ratchet up tension. I find that sometimes all I need to do is move things along quicker to make things work. It's kind of like this character is handling things a little too well. Let's pile on two or three more problems and see how they do.



> 3. How do you manage description in a trashy session?



If the description is there, it's there. If it's not, it's not. Sometimes I just put in brackets (need to elaborate on x, because y)



> 4. How do you manage character development when you basicially skimmed through a major part of a character's arc? Is this even something reccomended for a First Draft?



See answer to question 2. In each scene I know where the character is at when they enter the scene and where they're at after the scene. How they get there doesn't necessarily matter in draft 1. The next scene just continues on as if their arc had advanced.




> 5. What do you do that allows you to get your mind off how crappy your writing is in that particular instance?



This is something got me beyond the crippling weight of perfectionism. I always tell myself "It may suck now, but I can always make it better." Because as I go through my day, I'll think of better ways to do things.

This is true about half the time. But the other half, it turns out it didn't suck at all.

There are times where I come back to a scene, thinking well this piece of garbage needs a serious burning, and come to realise it works just fine. Though, the reverse is true too. I've come back to "inspired" scenes that I thought were brilliant, but they were trash.

Sometimes it's really hard to judge something without getting away from it for a time.


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## Netardapope (Jun 27, 2017)

Aurora said:


> Ok...so are you calling speed writing sessions trashy then? Can you do your best to focus on producing good story during those sessions? It's not about produing perfection; it's about producing cleaner work. Can you take the trashy out of it?


Well, trashy in the sense of me just focusing on typing sentences out and praying to God that it works out for the best. I call it trashy because compared to the rest of the work, which is planned, and thought out, these speedwriting sessions are more spray and pray

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## Aurora (Jun 27, 2017)

Netardapope said:


> Well, trashy in the sense of me just focusing on typing sentences out and praying to God that it works out for the best. I call it trashy because compared to the rest of the work, which is planned, and thought out, these speedwriting sessions are more spray and pray
> 
> Sent from my SM-J700M using Tapatalk


Got it. Are you trying to make them not trashy, then? Are you trying to figure out how to improve the quality of what you're producing in those sessions? I'm trying to understand how to help...


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## Netardapope (Jun 27, 2017)

Aurora said:


> Got it. Are you trying to make them not trashy, then? Are you trying to figure out how to improve the quality of what you're producing in those sessions? I'm trying to understand how to help...


Basically, I'm making them trashy in order to keep up my daily progress while I brainstorm a solution in my down time. This is why I lower my word count for trashy sessions. It's more of form of writing I can do in order to keep my mind in the story while I figure out a solution.

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## Aurora (Jun 27, 2017)

Netardapope said:


> Basically, I'm making them trashy in order to keep up my daily progress while I brainstorm a solution in my down time. This is why I lower my word count for trashy sessions. It's more of form of writing I can do in order to keep my mind in the story while I figure out a solution.
> 
> Sent from my SM-J700M using Tapatalk


It sounds solid and personalized. I'm not really sure what else to add except good luck and that with time your skills will improve and you'll find the sessions will be less trashy. Meaning you won't have to throw out as much.


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## Annoyingkid (Jun 27, 2017)

The way I get through difficult work is to try different variations until one works. This is especially true of any art that I make. I don't know how writers have the kind of confidence that they can "always make it better later". You can? Says who? I don't know that I'd be able to make it better later, and leaving that open question lingering would bug the hell out of me. The only exception to this is if I am working real late and I'm tired, often sleeping on it and refreshing the brain makes the work much easier the next day.


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## skip.knox (Jun 27, 2017)

It happens a lot--take a look at how many responses have appeared on this thread already. I really do think you have to get stuck like a hundred times or so, not so you no longer experience the pain but so you figure out what your way forward is. What works for you.

I will not pretend to know a solution. I still run into the wall. Lots of walls. Covered in bruises I am. But I think I'm seeing one common element: I'm not close enough to my characters in that moment. I may (or may not) have a pretty good feel for the character(s) at this point in the story, but I fall into the trap of moving them around like chess pieces. I'm outside, feet firmly planted in the plot, looking down at my characters. I need to be on the ground with them. I need to feel something.

So, for me, it's not so much about bulling my way through, or speedwriting my way past, but in slowing down, putting myself not merely in the scene but in the very moment. I know it's working not because I love the words--I'm too critical for that. I know it's working because I come out of the scene feeling something, whether it be joy or fear or surprise. The emotion doesn't matter; its presence means I've experienced something, which means more than likely the reader will too. And that brings a secondary emotion: satisfaction. That's usually enough to carry me forward into the next wall.

FWIW, an outline doesn't help at all here. I know where I'm going. I know how to get there. But I lose steam because I'm not enjoying the ride, and that's often because I'm hurrying. I'm not letting myself be in the moment.


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## summondice (Oct 17, 2018)

I realize I'm responding to something that's a few months old, but in case it's still useful or relevant to someone, and because I'm sitting in  a doctor's office working toward my "five posts," my advice, in these circumstances, would be to "tell not show." It's the opposite of what we're all taught to do, but we're not talking about the final draft here. We're not even talking about a draft that's been beta read or been through a developmental edit stage - it's a first draft. Sometimes we don't know if X scene that feels really boring now is going to be needed later, but it feels like it is, and it's the next "step" in the story, so we write it. 

Later, it's far easier to delete than to add, and if it turns out to be relevant then we can rework it to show over tell at that time. And we'll have more information to work with, too


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## Helen (Oct 31, 2018)

Netardapope said:


> Tips for "Speedwriting" Tedious Scenes in the First Draft?



Take tedious scenes out. They should all be worth reading. If you find them tedious, so will your audience.


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## Mythopoet (Nov 1, 2018)

Helen said:


> Take tedious scenes out. They should all be worth reading. If you find them tedious, so will your audience.



Not necessarily. There are many reasons a scene might be tedious to write. One reason could be that the scene is just boring and unnecessary and should be cut. Another reason could be that you know something needs to happen in the story but haven't yet figured out how it should happen. Or perhaps you have too many details you're trying to work in and it's bogging everything down. Or perhaps there's a character that you haven't gotten a good feel for yet and so writing their parts feels difficult or wrong. Or it could just be that a writer finds it very difficult to get their ideas down into words in the first draft. It's a mistake to assume that writing should always be fun and easy.


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