Mutters from the depths
Jan. 2nd, 2006 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ksmithSo 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-04 06:44 am (UTC)But you know, I was laughing to myself while reading that, since that is exactly the arduous and frustrating process I go through. Sometimes, if I'm fighting through a scene that won't end, won't go anywhere, and stubbornly refuses to play, I suddenly realize that it's because something else is wrong and I don't know how to fix it yet.
Argh.
But - Go you! Or would that properly be - Go, you!
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Date: 2006-01-04 03:47 pm (UTC)The thing is, I started wondering a couple of days ago whether the reason the chapters had stalled was because the book was headed in the wrong direction. This *really* worried me because I don't have time to completely restructure the thing, which is sometimes what that feeling leads to.
But I felt a pretty strong sense of relief when the solution flooped into my head. It will take a lot of working out--I only wrote about 1100 words yesterday instead of my desired 1250 because the conversation in this chapter involved an investigation with Undercurrents (tm), and those can get tricky. But I don't think I need to knock the book down to the footing and start over, which is a huge load off. It will be bad enough having to rewrite the first half.