I spent the whole day – like 8 hours – revising the one scene in my book my agent wasn’t crazy about.  Banged out about 2,500 words.  Hit a wall, backed myself into a corner.  And then couldn’t write myself out of it no matter hard I tried.

Trying to completely revise one scene that doesn’t work – which happens to be sandwiched between two other scenes that do work – is like trying to fit the last piece into a jigsaw puzzle only to realize it’s the wrong piece and doesn’t quite fit.  I can’t change the beginning of the scene because it’s connected to the previous scene.   I can’t change the end of the scene because it’s connected to the following scene.  All I can do is work with what’s in the middle, and that’s a lot harder than it sounds (and just as confusing!).

So I stepped away from the computer.  I made dinner.  I actually cooked, even though it’s just me this week and I’ll have leftovers for the next three days.  I caught up on my backlog of DVR’d TV shows.  Then I cleaned up the kitchen, fed the cats, and had some dessert.

And then finally, finally, as I was enjoying the sweet sinfulness of a Godiva dark chocolate truffle, I had a breakthrough.

The solution was to make a few minor tweaks to the scene as it originally was.  And once I started, it only took about forty-five minutes to complete.  I spent all day over-thinking it, and once I stopped thinking about it, it practically solved itself.

Or maybe it was the chocolate.

Like I said the other day, I’m slow… but I get there.

And now I feel really, really good about this book.  I’m just about ready to send it out into the world.  Have I ever said that before?  I don’t think I have.

And it pleases me to say it, yes it does.