Final Battle Setbacks

(I actually wrote this post on December 31, but I didn't want to interrupt the Year-end Tallies, so I'm posting it a little late today.)

So I've been plugging away at the final battle of Book 2 for what feels like a month now, though I know it can't be that long. Thanks to some recent great advice about some changes I need to make to Basic Trouble, I realized I was making a similar mistake again in the pacing of Book 2. Which meant I would need to go back and add a scene or two into the book. Well, some of the information from those needed-to-be-added scenes was crucial to the final battle scene. I've been trying to get away with just plowing on to the end of the book and writing those new scenes as part of my first editing pass, but it wasn't working. I desperately want to get to the end of the book. And the end is so close!

But I was trying to force it, and forcing it doesn't come out so well on paper. Which is why I was having a hard time meeting my word count each day. So today I did something I try to avoid doing when I'm writing my first draft: I went back through what I'd written and added new text.

I did it safely, and by that I mean I looked for certain scenes and didn't let myself get bogged down in reading everything (which can be a hard temptation to resist). Today, I added the necessary scene (and a good 6 pages) to the middle of the book. I also went through a few chapters later in the novel and added notes to myself of what changes I need to make now because of the new scene.

Tomorrow, I think I'll be able to sit down and continue the final battle scene with confidence! I think I made the right decision, even though I went against one of my personal rules, but it's a good reminder that the novel-writing process is a fluid thing, and no two books or no two books' strategies are going to be the same.