There’s an extra scene from Anywhere But Here posted today on Wattpad.

It’s a favourite scene of mine, but during one of my revision stages I decided the book needed an actual plot and I began creating charts and graphs and timelines and all those other logical things I usually avoid. I found this particular chapter, while entertaining, didn’t serve a discernible purpose. So, repeating “kill your darlings” to myself (that’s classic writing advice, for those of you who don’t spend your days with your nose in how-to-write-a-decent-novel guides like I do), I cut it.

And then I regretted it.

I told myself I could sneak it into a future book. Realistically, though, it’s about skinny dipping in a lightning storm. How many books is that going to fit into?

Fortunately, Wattpad came to my rescue.

I rewrote the scene and found, now that my mind has some distance from the book and some clarity, the text probably should have been included in the first place. There was meaning after all!

Whew. A lot of blathering about one scene. Feel free to charge me for these moments of therapy. And please check out Wattpad!