Revising

They say that the only writing is rewriting, and although I believe this to be true, I also find it more than a little problematic. For example, a scene I'm working on now reveals information that shouldn't be revealed until later. It needs to be earned by both the characters and the reader. If it appears too early it feels like cheating.

This is all well and good, except for one thing. Now where the hell do I put it? Other scenes are contingent on this scene, and the information revealed here leads to other actions. Moving things around disrupts cause and effect, as they currently exist.

The challenge, then, becomes one of making slight (or not so slight) modifications to cause and effect. Sounds easy enough in Chapter 1, but what happens in Chapter 31, when all the dominoes I'd originally lain at the beginning are now in different places? I'll tell you what happens: probably something different from what I'd envisioned way back when.

Revising is literally re-envisioning. It's seeing things a different way. When the son returns, a stranger in his own home, maybe the neighbors mention his prolonged absence. Great idea, now I need to add neighbors into the story. Their world just became more complex and richer for it. I just gave myself more work to do.

Does the mother react a certain way because that's how she would react, or does she do so because I want the plot to advance? If I'm honest about it, which I must be, it's the latter. The only problem there is that such reaction is complete bullshit and topples the remaining dominoes. Nobody, least of all me, will care what happens after her forced reaction.

Her reaction will be forced either way, it just shouldn't feel like it.