Mmmm... Writing
Dec. 9th, 2003 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidklechaSo, last night I decided I've officially hit the wall.
Kristine Smith, when she talks about her writing process, usually mentions that around page 200 of her manuscript, Better Ideas and changes of direction have started to overwhelm the writing process and she has to stop cold, go back, rewrite the first 200, then continue on.
Or something like that. I'm sure I'm mangling her description of the process, but I'm too lazy right now to go look it up.
Anyway, I think I've hit that sort of wall with the novel I'm working on right now. It came later than 200 manuscript pages, but the whole thing is starting to collapse under the weight of stuff that I want to change, and it's sorta driving me crazy. What's really funny was I thought this was something I had grown out of. I remember doing it way back in the day, when I was greener and had less discipline, but my last novel, for the most part, proceeded in a fairly straightforward manner. I did some extensive rewriting, here and there, but only after the whole thing was in the can.
So, today, I'm kicking off the new Chapter 1... to be tacked on before the current Chapter 1. I liked the original opening, but I felt, pretty soon after I got into the meat of the story, that I didn't set up my heroine or her situation well enough. I wanted to foreshadow things a little more heavily, show more of what I know about her as a person. Revisions will continue through there until I achieve the tightness and inherent tension that I'm looking for.
This may also warrant excising my secondary POV. Since he seems to be without much of a story, other than "Guy Doing His Job," which sorta smacks of Tom Clancy, his absence might go entirely unfelt. The critical question is how do I communicate the information that I've been divulging through him, strictly through my heroine's POV? Ideally, this will help me clear out some of the clutter, as well.
But we'll see. I can think of places where his point of view is just so useful.
Ramble ramble ramble.
Kristine Smith, when she talks about her writing process, usually mentions that around page 200 of her manuscript, Better Ideas and changes of direction have started to overwhelm the writing process and she has to stop cold, go back, rewrite the first 200, then continue on.
Or something like that. I'm sure I'm mangling her description of the process, but I'm too lazy right now to go look it up.
Anyway, I think I've hit that sort of wall with the novel I'm working on right now. It came later than 200 manuscript pages, but the whole thing is starting to collapse under the weight of stuff that I want to change, and it's sorta driving me crazy. What's really funny was I thought this was something I had grown out of. I remember doing it way back in the day, when I was greener and had less discipline, but my last novel, for the most part, proceeded in a fairly straightforward manner. I did some extensive rewriting, here and there, but only after the whole thing was in the can.
So, today, I'm kicking off the new Chapter 1... to be tacked on before the current Chapter 1. I liked the original opening, but I felt, pretty soon after I got into the meat of the story, that I didn't set up my heroine or her situation well enough. I wanted to foreshadow things a little more heavily, show more of what I know about her as a person. Revisions will continue through there until I achieve the tightness and inherent tension that I'm looking for.
This may also warrant excising my secondary POV. Since he seems to be without much of a story, other than "Guy Doing His Job," which sorta smacks of Tom Clancy, his absence might go entirely unfelt. The critical question is how do I communicate the information that I've been divulging through him, strictly through my heroine's POV? Ideally, this will help me clear out some of the clutter, as well.
But we'll see. I can think of places where his point of view is just so useful.
Ramble ramble ramble.
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-09 07:57 pm (UTC)Well, happily he does get out of his office quite a bit. It's just that all I seem to be showing him doing is the actually often quite unentertaining job of a covert agent gathering intelligence. I could have him flying through windows in black spandex and seducing willing females, but it's really not that sort of story. So, I'm quite afraid that those bits are rather boring. Heck, half the time I don't want to write them, except that I do want a break from my heroine. So, I'm conflicted.
See, the really tricky bit is that he spends a good chunk of the story chasing after her. And being an intelligence agent, he has much more access to the real story of what's going on, and most of what she's doing is just ... running.
Happily, none of this really affects how I want the book to end, which I tend to consider important. As long as I have a firm view of where I want to go with this, I don't worry alot about getting lost from here to there. Maybe I need to keep him as a character, just not from his POV. They could meet and converse on a couple of occasions, giving her (and the audience) access to more information.
Much to think on.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-10 03:42 am (UTC)Can she make his life accidentally or on purpose "interesting" while doing so?
I guess what it comes down to, is the same thing it often comes down to: if he's an interesting enough character(even if it's just his mental voice that creates the interest), then the reader will read it all and come back asking for more.
Wish I had more useful advice.