Mutters from the depths

[ksmith]

So the Chapter That Wouldn't End is finished for now. 20.5 pages. It was 26 pages--yes, this is the one I shaved over 1500 words from because it was running too long at 25 pages--but I decided that the short sweet ending didn't work after all, so I cut it and the preceding argument and called it the start of the next chapter. So, CTWE ends on a sad note instead of with a fight and a dollop of triumph. Not quite as satisfactory from a Sheer Drama (tm) point of view, but the new arrangement moves the story along a little better because it provides a better opening to the next scene.

Don't mind me--I'm just talking myself down off a ledge here.

I'm guessing that I will have to cut at least 100 pages from the first half of this draft. Possibly closer to 150. I then need to inject more action into the pages that remain. Thoughts of how to do this woke me up at about 430 this morning. No answers, just the realization that the "end" of this book isn't as simple as I first thought it would be. Instead of the last fifth of the book, it needs to comprise about the last third.

You know what's really funny--laugh I thought I'd die--is the fact that the final book still won't deviate all that much from the damned outline. But the front stuff, that I first thought was very important, is turning out to be not quite as vital as I thought. It needs to move a hell of a lot faster, which means I will have to break out Bucky the Chainsaw come second draft time.

To make matters even more fun, I don't feel quite right. Slightly odd throat and ears. Just a tad achy. It could be the weather--we had t-storms here today for crying out loud. I'm just hoping it's not a cold.

In other news, after rhapsodizing about my new guitar only a short while ago...I'm thinking seriously of putting lessons on hold for the next two months. I'm not practicing as I should. It's become one more thing on the To Do List instead of something to enjoy, and since I am at least nominally an adult, I can quit if I want to.

The vision is starting to tunnel is all.

Comments

[mindyklasky.livejournal.com]

I'm muttering "simplify, simplify, simplify" to myself a lot these days - it helps to create the time for writing, and it keeps the writing lean.

IMHO, you've answered your own question - when something you love becomes a checkbox on the to-do list, then it's time to make new arrangements. You've granted yourself this very special two-month window for writing; guitar just might have to step aside.

(Of course, I write that as a near-tone-deaf strummer, who only picked up the guitar to exorcise a tragic teen-aged romance :-) )

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It's a wrestle. This is the second time I will have dropped guitar because of book demands, and after I dropped it the first time I didn't pick it up again for 6-7 years. Same thing happened to golf--yes, I did used to play golf. Anything that required some level of practice/devotion fell by the wayside as the book-of-the-time took over.

I enjoy playing guitar, but I'm not particularly talented...which was, to tell the truth, a little disappointing to discover. But then if I was good at it, it would be harder to excise, and I've needed to simplify for a while now.

(Oh--sorry to hear about the tragic romance. What songs aided in the exorcism?)

[mindyklasky.livejournal.com]

Ah, it wasn't specific songs that exorcised that spirit. It was the act of playing, itself. The object of the tragic romance was an Older Man (I was 19, and he was 24) who was a stunning guitar player. When he broke my heart for the umpteenth time, I decided that I was going to teach *myself* to play.

The technique actually worked, although I think that it was more a passage of time thing than anything else. At least some of the time that I would have spent moping over him, I spent learning chords.

Good luck with your decision making!

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Thanks!