I seem to be back in my usual creative pattern, which means I spend the day writing, then just as I start to fall asleep at night, I realize that I did something wrong or went in a wrong direction with what I wrote that day. In the morning, I think about it, figure out that the realization was right, then have to scrap a lot of what I wrote the day before.

Except last night I went back several scenes to work I did more than a week ago (though they were scenes I revised yesterday). I don’t think it will end up killing too much, just shifting some things around a bit, and it definitely makes the story more interesting. I didn’t get that much done yesterday because I kept getting interrupted, then I had to go to the library and went to vote while I was at it (since the polling place is at the library), and then I had a meeting last night. Today I got a late start because I slept a little later after getting home late last night, but I have nothing to do other than write, so I hope I can make some forward progress after I fix the thing I figured out.

And then as I fall asleep tonight, I’ll figure out what I did wrong today. But at least I’m fixing these things before I get too far into the book. It’s easier to scrap one scene now than to have to entirely rewrite the last half because I went in the wrong direction and didn’t fix it then. It’s also a good sign that my brain is engaged enough to be mulling these things over and coming up with new ideas. I was reading something related to an entirely different project when this idea popped into my head.

Someday, maybe I’ll be able to figure out the thing I need to do BEFORE I actually write the wrong thing.