I came back, after a relatively long break, to working on my novel, A Barber of Great Renown, today. I read through the final chapter, to get back into Larkin's voice (it's all first-person, near past) and then wrote for a solid few hours. I walked away feeling fairly well pleased.
Then I realized that I had let one of my supporting characters progress the plot in such a way that several--and we're talking major--scenes were actually superfluous. I could cut plotlines, I mean we're talking a major elision, all because I forgot not what I planned to have happen, but rather how I planned to get my character on his way to Point C.
Now what do I do? Is it better that things be shorter? My husband would probably say yes. I've been told I go on; it's been said...
Or do I go back and chop off the final few sentences I wrote, so that I can add the few plotpoints I meant to put in?
...I pace around in a low blood-sugar huff. That's what I do. Twice-bedamned novel, as Larkin would say.
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