I Barely Remember What I Wrote Yesterday

Every writer must have days like this, when they write either because they're scheduled to or because they feel they should. As you know, I have to take advantage of every writing opportunity, because they arise less and less often now.

It's not a given that forced writing is bad writing. Sometimes I've amazed myself with what I managed to come up with when I didn't feel like doing it. Yesterday wasn't one of those days.

Worse, I knew what the next scene would be. My heart just wasn't in it. The particular scenario provided for a lot of possibilities, maybe too many. It involved my main character attending an awards show as the guest of her superstar mentor. She was awestruck witnessing in person what she'd previously only watched on TV. Except I don't think I conveyed her fascination appropriately. The scene had a lot of moving parts and thus I concentrated more on the logistics than on emotions.

Needless to say, I'm not happy with it ~ at all. I haven't reread it yet, but I have a general sense of its dullness. This is the problem I encounter when I plan, rather than go with the flow. I'm too worried about forgetting to include all the elements I want to include, so it turns into a laundry list. "This happened, then this other thing happened, then..."

I'll have no choice but to start over. I'm grateful, I suppose, that I have a rough draft to work from, so I can stop worrying about forgetting things, but this time I'll show those events through the MC's eyes, as a participant and not a documenter. I have to laugh (ruefully) at how I failed to describe the venue, one that's real but that I have no familiarity with. I didn't even reference its expanse or any detail about it. It basically came off as a nondescript high school gymnasium. 

I guess yesterday was my "lost session". Now I'll have to spend my next one backtracking.

Maybe sometimes when we're not in the mood, we should listen to ourselves.