Spent 6 hours rewriting a single scene and still cut it

I was working on a fantasy story where my main character discovers a hidden door in a library. The first version felt too rushed, so I rewrote it slowly over 3 hours. Then I realized the dialogue was all wrong, so I scrapped that and started fresh. Another 3 hours later I just deleted the whole scene and moved on. Has anyone else spent way too long on one part of a prompt story?

2 comments

2 Comments

jake_torres6817h ago

here's the thing about rewriting a scene over and over - i've noticed the same thing happens in real life when you're trying to fix something small. like when i'm trying to adjust my side mirror just right, i'll move it a tiny bit, then another tiny bit, then finally realize i had it perfect the first time and now it's worse. sometimes the best move is to just step back and start fresh with a different angle, which is basically what you did by deleting the scene. that's actually a smart move because you probably had some good ideas stuck in that broken scene anyway, and now they can show up in a better spot later. don't beat yourself up over the 6 hours, that's just part of the process of figuring out what doesn't work. what kind of scene are you trying to write next?

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mila_brown109h ago

ngl i used to be the opposite, i always thought you should just push through and fix it no matter what. but your mirror analogy actually hit different for me, i've definitely made things worse trying to tweak stuff that was already fine. now i get why sometimes you just gotta trash it and let the good parts resurface later.