Pausing On Purpose

“Pausing?” you ask as you glance at the title of this post. “I’m not even close to meeting my Speedbo word count goal and Glynna wants to talk about PAUSING?”
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No. Or at least not about pausing right at this very moment.
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So keep those fingers flying on the keyboard. Keep up your momentum as you rush headlong toward your month’s end goal. Some of you are right on target, your story product is coming out even better than you’d dare dream. Congratulations!
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But...others of you may be doubting that what you’ve written the past four weeks has any value whatsoever. Maybe you faithfully met your daily word count goal, but there’s an underlying uneasiness that you’ve ended up with an unsalvageable mess.
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The scenes you were so excited about writing now seem flat and pointless. There are huge gaps where you jumped ahead in the story and need to fill in. You suspect some scenes could be deleted altogether with no loss to the story--just to the word count. Maybe you feel you’ve wander off your intended path, your storyteller’s GPS having gone on holiday. Disheartened, it’s all you can do to keep going these final days of Speedbo.
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That’s what we’re going to talk about today--what happens when Speedbo’s month concludes. The PURPOSEFUL PAUSE before you stuff your month’s worth of hard work under the bed or chuck it into the trash can.
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All is not lost.
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Years ago I attended a day-long writing workshop. The instructor covered myriad topics. But the thing that stuck with me is that she gave us each a sheet of paper with these words written in large, bold letters: I WRITE ONLY TO REWRITE.
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Sometimes the best thing we can do for our story is to PAUSE. To step back, give it a little breathing room for few days or a week while we work on something else. This might be when we’re finished with the first chapter, the entire book, or in the middle when we’re certain we’ve lost our way. That’s when we need to take a deep breath and read it through from beginning to wherever we are at the time. You know, the old-fashioned way--with probing questions and a red pen in hand.
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The questions I’m sharing today aren’t meant to be all-inclusive, but maybe they’ll help you get jumpstarted when you come to Speedbo’s end. Remember, I WRITE ONLY TO REWRITE.What is the MORAL PREMISE? In other words, what’s the backbone of the story that you want reflected in each scene? “_______ leads to _______. But _______ leads to ______.” (Example: “Blind ambition leads to destruction of relationships. But love-motivated sacrifice leads to enduring bonds.”) Have you illustrated your premise throughout the manuscript?
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1 - Have you started the story in the RIGHT place?Often first scenes get off to a slow start as we pack in all that back story before the real story begins a few chapters later. Can you streamline the back story? Or should you bring that second or third chapter to the forefront, then gradually feed in the back story of how your characters got to the opening point?
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2 - Are all the scenes NECESSARY? Maybe writing a cute scene or an action-packed one was fun, but in retrospect it serves no real purpose in the story. Perhaps it should be deleted or maybe it needs a shot of directional energy. Which leads us to GMC. Goal, motivation and conflict...
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3 - Have you given your characters a GOAL worthy of fighting for? Is it something the reader can identify with and cheer them on toward? It needs to be something the character can’t just give up with an “oh, well” shrug. How can you strengthen it?
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4 - What about character MOTIVATION to reach the goal? A weak motivation will sabotage even the best of goals. Readers need to know that people are saying, thinking, feeling and doing things for a reason. A fairly consistent reason, too, not one that changes every time a new scenes opens. Have you made the motivation convincing? Can you make it stronger?
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5 - Is there an overall story-length CONFLICT, increasing obstacles to reaching the goal? Does conflict exist in each scene? If there’s no conflict, either internal or external, it’s very easy for a scene to become what’s known as “episodic”--one that has little purpose and doesn’t move the story forward. Can you strengthen it? (Remembering, of course, that there’s more to conflict than characters arguing.)
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6 - How is the PACING? Did you rush through scenes just to get them out of your head and move on to the next, leaving them with little depth? While stripped-down, fast paced writing can serve a purpose at times, it can also be shallow. Talking heads without dialogue tags or body movement. No internal dialogue to clue us in on what the Point of View (POV) character is thinking and feeling. No sense of time or place. No use of sight, sound, taste, touch, smell. Layer it in.
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Are there other scenes where you elaborated on and on and on? This is often a danger in trying to reach a set word count in limited time. Clearly padding that slows things down. Too much description, pointless dialogue, repeating the same thing multiple times but in a different way. Can you cut and condense?
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7 - Have you TOLD too much, rather than SHOWING? Have you told the reader that something significant has happened “off stage” that they should have been allowed to see in action? Have you SAID how a character feels rather than letting the reader experience how he/she feels?
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8 - Have you kept the point of view consistent within a scene, not head-hopping? Have you chosen the RIGHT POV for a scene? Have you taken full advantage of deep POV where the viewpoint character sees, feels, thinks and describes things in their own unique way?
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9 - Have you jumped from scene to scene in a jerky fashion with no TRANSITIONS to smooth the way? Will a few additional sentences do the trick or do you need a more substantial “sequel” to the previous scene?
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10 - And what about the story’s BLACK MOMENT – do you have one? Have your scenes climbed steadily to an “all is lost” point? Is the black moment strong enough that the reader feels there’s no way things can work out in the end? If not, weave in a build-up to a stronger black moment.
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11 - Does the story have a SATISFYING ENDING? Have you wrapped up loose ends? Did you jump too quickly from the black moment to save-the-day or happily ever after?
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With only a few days remaining of the Speedbo month, press on to meet your word count goal. Very soon, wherever you are in the story, you can pause on purpose to remind yourself: “I WRITE ONLY TO REWRITE.”
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Where are you today in your perceptions of Speedbo? How confident are you with what you’ve written thus far? What do you sense needs to be tweaked or revamped when the Speedbo month comes to an end? Do you now recognize that no matter how negatively you currently FEEL about your month’s effort, the output can be fixed?
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If you’d like to be entered in a drawing for a winner’s choice of one of my books, please mention it in the comments section, then check our Weekend Edition for the winner announcement!

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Glynna Kaye’s debut book “Dreaming of Home” was a finalist in the ACFW Carol and Maggie awards, as well as a first place winner of the “Booksellers Best” and “Beacon” awards. Her 4 1/2 star “At Home In His Heart” was chosen as a Reviewers Choice finalist by national magazine RT Book Reviews. Another Love Inspired set in Arizona, “A Canyon Springs Courtship,” will release in September 2013--with two more contracted for 2014!