More Writing Adventures

I haven't given up on my novella (yet). Yesterday I tried adding scenes involving the heretofore unseen character. As an aside, I can't believe how slowly I write. I spent three and a a half straight hours inventing scenes, and it amounted to maybe five long paragraphs. How is that even possible? 

Regardless, I proceeded by opening a new document, which is so much easier and less confusing than trying to insert new words into an existing manuscript. For one thing, I didn't know where the new narrative would fit in the story, or if it even would. The new character is interesting but difficult to flesh out. On the one hand, she is able to draw my MC into a friendship, but on the other hand, she's not very likeable. I probably should have stressed that the MC has no friends in her new town, which would explain why she puts up with this person. Too, it's tricky because I don't want to give away the big reveal, but only hint that something about her is "wrong". I don't think I succeeded to my satisfaction. 

Ultimately I found places to slot in the new scenes, but now I'm in a quandary. Spoiler Alert: the woman is crazy. How do I portray that? Does she kidnap my MC? She has to do something, or else the whole thing is pointless. I'm leading myself into territory I didn't want to pursue ~ not because I'm averse to writing tense scenes, but because I'm now veering away from the core theme. This was supposed to supplement the story, not replace it.  

It seems the more I do, the more mired I become. 

My writing session ended with the MC's boyfriend explaining to her how things went so wrong with the new character, but that smacks of "telling"; recounting something that happened in the past, only without the impact. It also insinuates that this person simply went away, never to be heard from again. That just doesn't work.

It's clear that I have a lot more to do, and it's weighing on me. I wrote Lies and Love in four weeks. It was a snap. I never went back and added to the narrative ~ didn't need to. Plus, I haven't re-read this new iteration. It could be terrible. Maybe I'm hoping that by avoiding reading it, it'll magically turn out "great".

I am adamant that the new character adds a piece that was missing. She was important to include. I just don't know that I can pull this off, and I hate not knowing.