So yesterday I told you a little bit about a scene I'd written for issue #11 that unexpectedly went to an even higher rating on the ol' "How Turned On Is Ghostly While Writing This" scale. (Said scale starts at 1 - A Slight Quickening Of The Pulse, to 10 - Can't Actually Finish Writing This, Must Take Care Of Business.)
Anyway, overnight and this morning I was pondering over said scene, patting myself on the back a bit, reliving it in the glorious Technicolor, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround environment that is my mind. And I realised there was something missing.
There's a lesson here, fellow writers: never assume because a scene seems great at first pass, that it's as great as it can be. (Or, to repeat myself: writing is rewriting.)
There was indeed something missing... it was a little peek at our protagonist's inner feelings. (I'm not spoiling anything by saying it was Betty.) I needed to know a bit more about what she was feeling, and more importantly, why she was feeling it. Y'see, overnight one tiny line of dialogue - the one that got me so hot and bothered - had also revealed a simply delicious new plotline. Said plotline manages to accomplish several different things that I've wanted to do in the series, and even introduces a whole bunch of new, entirely kinky stuff. In other words, I really want to write it. (And why is it, exactly, that I'm always jonesing to write the arc after the one that's up next? Hmmm. Absence make the GW lust stronger....)
Anyway, I needed that extra detail to lift this scene up, to make it more important in the grand scheme of things. Y'see, even though this scene takes place in issue #11, you'll look back on it from about issue #22 or so and go "Aaah... I can see where this all started." I'm planting seeds.
So today, with that thought in my mind, I went back to edit said scene, and punch it up a little. I wanted to improve it. And I did, I feel. I sweated over every line, every comma, every word... reading, re-reading, gauging my own reaction as it slowly moved along The Scale to an 8, a 9... an oh me oh my. I thought it couldn't get any better.
But get this: suddenly, it did. At the end of the scene, in a throwaway moment which I'd already written in a hurry to wrap the issue up, a tiny little thought occurred to my deviant mind. "What if she does that before she does that... oh yes. Oh, yes." That little moment suddenly became a much larger moment, and lifted the ending of the story another notch. To a 9, no doubt in my mind... although of course, your mileage may (probably will) vary.
A great day for the writing, then. Another little milestone was passed, too, although it's not one I'm boasting about. With the additions I made today (about 500 words or so), Spider-Girl Issue #11 just became the first issue to break the 10,000 word mark. This isn't exactly surprising to me... the issues have been climbing in words ever since issue #1, as I get more comfortable with the characters and want to explore things more thoroughly. On top of that, to be honest, the more scenes like the ones I just described I put in, the more the word count rises. Detail, detail, detail... that's what it's all about.
Anyway, enough self-congratulation. I imagine it must drive a few of you crazy to read this stuff. Sorry! Just rest assured... it's all coming to you sooner or later.
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