Heather’s Road to Revision Part 1: Writer’s Block & Scene Analyses

Ever hit a brick wall when trying to revise the opening of a story?

This is just what happened to me recently and the following is how I discovered the underlying problem for my “writer’s block” and what I’m doing to conquer the problem.

The “block” began when I tried to come up with a new opening to my story. I had a general idea of how I wanted it to go, but as hard as I tried, the words just wouldn’t come to me. After staring at the screen one morning without success, I turned to some internet articles on writing fiction at the site   http://writingfiction.suite101.com/

That’s when I realized my problem: I was stuck because I was trying to force my opening conflict and exposition  without really asking myself what the true purpose of the scene was.

Luckily, I found some good articles on scene analysis. Remember that topic from your “The Craft of Writing Fiction” books? Well, I’d done some scene analyses during the writing process – but that was back before my story took its countless twists and turns from its original outline.

So my plan now is to evaluate each scene (notice I didn’t say chapter) to see how it propels the plot, develops characterization, and doles out bits of exposition. I’m hoping this will help me overcome my writer’s block during the revision process, as well as make it easier to see which sentences, paragraphs, scenes aren’t needed.

Now I’m off to work. I’ll let you know how it goes.