Supposed Crimes 30-day Challenge question for Day 29: How do you handle a situation that doesn’t go as you planned?
If the scene I’m writing doesn’t go as planned, I sit back and reassess. Was I off the rails, not thinking clearly about character motivations but instead something irrelevant to the story? Or was this the character saying “this is what I’d rather do?”
Depending on the answer, I either move the scene to a “cut” file (maybe it’s more appropriate for another character’s story later) or I reassess my plot summary and account for the change in direction and make the logical cause-effect changes.
For other unexpected situations outside of writing, such as employment, I’m not able to control other people’s actions so I change my own. I will generally retrench and go in a different direction. Like now, I’m redirecting my career path since over the the last 12 months, due to the actions of others, I have to conclude that teaching is no longer the right profession for me.
~ Lara
Lara Zielinsky 