The HEA Cafe

Yesterday was a lovely day in here in Ontario, bright sunshine, warm, my flower beds looked lovely, pretty, with pink impatience and yellow snapdragons.  But it is October. Any day now we could have snow and those bright pink impatience will go all yucky, a sort of wet, cold, soggy mass that freeze your fingers when you try to pull them up.  But killing plants that are so vibrant and alive just seems so awful.

But, having pulled up the wet soggy masses in the past, or worst yet, dealt with the wet soggy masses in the spring when the snow has gone away, I gritted my teeth and put perfectly happy plants in a big brown paper bag, so the recycling folks could collect them this morning.

While I was wreaking this destruction, I was thinking about blogging today. I was also thinking about editing my next manuscript. The little plants became symbolic of all of those lovely scenes I have written, bright little descriptions of happy little events that have to be cut. Scenes that were beautiful that have to be cut. Scenes where the prose seemed to flow, that have to be cut.

Pretty pink and yellow scenes, that aren’t working hard enough. Every scene has to do at least three of the following things, or it is pretty and useless.  It must advance the plot, reveal something new about a main character, reveal backstory or foreshadow something about the future. And in addition, every scene must have conflict. Because if they are only pink and pretty, quite soon they will be horrible soggy messes holding your story down. You have no doubt heard this before, (you know, kill your darlings) but it doesn’t hurt to hear it again. It helps me to think clearly as I begin my day of revisions.

Today it is a cold and wet rainy day in Ontario, my flower beds are tidy and my wet soggy masses of plants are sitting in brown paper bags at the curbside. Today, I will be looking at my scenes with a jaundiced eye, ready to pull them out if they are not working hard enough or making sure they do.
Have a lovely day.

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