Griping and a signal boost
Feb. 16th, 2011 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anthimeriaYesterday I got home from work and with great determination sat down to work on Skywatch. It's been a while, I'd finished the rd for the steampunk short story, I had no more excuses.
So I went and strolled back through chapters 4 and 5 (previously edited while infected with the mutant cold) and hit chapter 6, as well. 40-ish pages and 4 hours later, I sat back and considered. Then I swore, loudly and creatively.
The thing is, one of the biggest problems I noticed in the first read-through was that my characters didn't really come to life until chapter 7. It was like I'd waved a magic wand or something--boring, boring, boring, Chapter 7--hey, I care about these people! It's abrupt and odd. And also the first 6 chapters are the first third of the bloody book. In this first round of editing, I had solid critiques and good ideas about how to fix the first three chapters (yay for the WisCon writer's workshop!). So I'm okay with draft II of chapters 1-3.
After last night's session and some serious consideration, I have concluded that chapters 4-6 need to be chapters 4-5, possibly 4-halfway through 5. Condensing is the name of the game. And I have no idea how.
Methinks it is going to have to wait till a later draft, when I have a better idea of the overall story. And I'm probably going to need some help. It's just frustrating to know what needs to be done without having a clue how to accomplish it.
My signal-boost for today is a blog post by Elena, concerning the Alpha SF/F/Horror workshop for young writers. Check out her post, and if you know any teen spec fic writers, let them know about this. I never did, and I wish I had.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-17 01:07 am (UTC)Eep, Stars in Manhattan. Good luck? I've had stories like that. Two years is a while, though, especially for you.
Skywatch is . . . going. If all else fails, I'll figure out what those chapters do, erase them, and re-write from scratch. I don't want to, but I can if I have to.
Y'know, five drafts from now. Maybe.