Ask the Author–What was your hardest scene to write and why?

It’s December, and NaNoWriMo is over! And the good news is, I actually did it! Despite getting sick in the middle, and wanting to quit a couple of times as I stayed up too late to finish my word count, I actually made 50,000 words. That wasn’t quite enough to finish the novel I had planned, but it is enough to “win” NaNoWriMo, so yay! Anyhow, the question for this month is: What was your hardest scene to write and why?

I can’t think of a specific scene that was the hardest, but I do know what types of scenes are hardest for me to write. There are several, and it is for different reasons.

The first type of scene that is hard for me to write is scenes where I actually have to know something about something. For example, when I’m writing stuff about dealing with injuries. I try to at least make what the characters do somewhat feasible. I end up spending a ton of time researching what they might be able to do (which is really hard because all the stuff I can find usually says, “do this temporary thing and get help. Get them to a doctor.” It never says what to do if you are the only help available and there is no chance of getting them to a doctor.) I usually end up taking the best knowledge I can find and making an educated guess about what might get done. It’s frustrating to no end. Also, the scenes where a character has to have a smart-sounding plan. I’m not great at strategy stuff, so I’m always worried that all the plans my characters have will be ridiculous. It’s hard for me to fake brilliance, so there’s that too.

The next type of scene that is hard to write is action scenes where I have to be able to describe exactly what the character is doing well enough that the reader can envision their movements precisely. For example, in the first book, there is a part where Alder is doing some fancy flying with Lyonal (I’m trying to avoid spoilers in case you haven’t read the book yet). It is important for the reader to be able to picture what he is doing, and I had to work really hard to try and make it so that was possible from my description. It’s hard to find a balance between that and writing too much so that it drags out too much since an action scene is supposed to keep a brisk momentum too. I tend to spend a lot of time working with these to make sure they are right.

The last type of scenes that are kind of hard for me is those scenes that are emotionally charged. It’s a bit tricky to make sure the characters say the right things, but even when I know what to write, they get hard for me, not because of the writing, but because I tend to let myself feel the emotions more than I probably should. They can tire me out very quickly because I get so emotionally invested in them.

If you were writing (or if you do write) a book, what type of scene do you think would be the hardest for you?