Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I wrote a scene—from anything—at another point in time. Would the dialogue be the same? Would the outcome be different?

I like to make myself writing schedules for the week, mostly because my brain is an obsessive planner and it needs to know that it’ll be kept busy. However, things happen. Schedules change. Health gives you a giant middle finger. I’ve gotten better with the changes here and there as I get older. I used to go into mild panic attacks whenever I didn’t get all my things on a to-do list done, or if I had to switch things around. Not anymore, thankfully. Sure, the guilt is sometimes still there, especially if I put off writing, but at least it isn’t a full breakdown.

But I do wonder what the outcome of my work would have been like if I’d actually written the scene/chapter/whatever when I was supposed to. Would it have been shit because I was tired at the time? Would it have been amazing? Have I missed out on genius?

I tend not to rewrite entire scenes. I usually just fiddle around with it until I’m happy, then move on to the next. Maybe I ought to start… See what’ll happen when I write the same scene at different points.

Maybe I’ll do that. Time to find a prompt and write it at two different points during the week.

FOR SCIENCE.

Has anyone else had similar thoughts? Or actually done my little experiment? What was your outcome?