Writing a Patchwork

Writing is like making a patchwork quilt. You have all these things that don't seem to go together and yet when you put them together they somehow become beautiful. You put your characters in situations that they don't seem to completely fit into and yet the more you write the more they just suddenly seem to belong.

I've been really struggling with an edit that I've been doing. There is this one scene, right near the end of the book that just hasn't been working. It needs to be dramatic, heartbreaking and yet real but at the moment its falling really flat. I've drawn on experiences as much as I can but its kind of out of my expertise. I've rewritten it time and time again to make it work but its eluding me. I need it to be perfect but the characters seem resistent to part and they need to in order for it to work.

People say that you should write what you know but this seems like the actual point of writing. JR Tolkein didn't know hobbits. JK Rowling didn't know wizards and Stephenie Meyer didn't know vampires. We just know people. We know how we feel and we react. We understand the complex network of human emotions that control us and no matter how different we are from the people that we write we know how people feel. SO I guess after that observation I should be able to go back and write the perfect scene. I have to be both characters. I have to feel what they feel and I have to make it work.

Here goes........