Wednesday, May 30
Gratuitous progress post:
Rewrite Progress
Comments: Today wasn't half bad, actually. First I went through two chapters that were in pretty good shape, once I hammered an extra character into them, making me feel like my writing wasn't complete crap. And then I went through a chapter that was entirely discarded subplot, meaning that I got a high page count and felt like I accomplished something. Hooray for silver linings!
Changes: Added an antagonist. Now if only he would do something.
Rewrite Progress
| |
56 / 172 (32.6%) |
Comments: Today wasn't half bad, actually. First I went through two chapters that were in pretty good shape, once I hammered an extra character into them, making me feel like my writing wasn't complete crap. And then I went through a chapter that was entirely discarded subplot, meaning that I got a high page count and felt like I accomplished something. Hooray for silver linings!
Changes: Added an antagonist. Now if only he would do something.
Tuesday, May 29
Writing post! Flee, those of you here for the cute animal stories! (Hmm, I should post some more of those soon. The girls have been quite cute lately.)
So I had this book. It started out with the working title of Bestiary, which I've tentatively changed to Kith and Kin. And, considering that I have about 86,000 words of material, I guess it's more accurate to say I have this book. It's just not a finished book.
I hit what should have been the downward slope of the book, and I choked. This was not entirely unexpected, as my book-writing pattern tends to look something like this:
a) Write.
b) Hate writing. Go back to beginning and rewrite.
c) Write.
d) Hate writing. Go back to beginning and rewrite.
e) Write....
f) Repeat ad infinitum until I somehow reach the end of the book.
But, as this method is rather time-consuming and had a lot to do with why my last book is desk-drawered after I reread it and realized I'd kinda rewrote all the shiny out, I was really, really determined to make it through this one without stopping.
I failed. 86K, and my dropped subplots came back to bite me in the butt and I suddenly had no way to write an emotionally satisfying climax.
So I sulked. Then I picked up Holly Lisle's Create A Plot Clinic, which is less the methodical trudge than it sounds than a really nifty set of methods for generating ideas and getting them on paper. I got ideas. I made plot notes. And, at the end, while I had a clearer notion of where I needed to go, I had to admit that I needed a better feel for where I'd been. I had all the bits for the climax, but the spaces between bits were going to kill it for me.
Which is all a long-winded way of saying y'all are going to be getting rewrite metrics for a while.
Rewrite Progress
Comments: Out of 26 (single-spaced; I am paper-cheap) pages, I have eight with writing on them that I want to keep. Eight. And two scenes. Out of my first three chapters, I have two whole scenes that I still think work.
I hope to God the rest of the book isn't this far off target.
Good Bits: You must be joking.
So I had this book. It started out with the working title of Bestiary, which I've tentatively changed to Kith and Kin. And, considering that I have about 86,000 words of material, I guess it's more accurate to say I have this book. It's just not a finished book.
I hit what should have been the downward slope of the book, and I choked. This was not entirely unexpected, as my book-writing pattern tends to look something like this:
a) Write.
b) Hate writing. Go back to beginning and rewrite.
c) Write.
d) Hate writing. Go back to beginning and rewrite.
e) Write....
f) Repeat ad infinitum until I somehow reach the end of the book.
But, as this method is rather time-consuming and had a lot to do with why my last book is desk-drawered after I reread it and realized I'd kinda rewrote all the shiny out, I was really, really determined to make it through this one without stopping.
I failed. 86K, and my dropped subplots came back to bite me in the butt and I suddenly had no way to write an emotionally satisfying climax.
So I sulked. Then I picked up Holly Lisle's Create A Plot Clinic, which is less the methodical trudge than it sounds than a really nifty set of methods for generating ideas and getting them on paper. I got ideas. I made plot notes. And, at the end, while I had a clearer notion of where I needed to go, I had to admit that I needed a better feel for where I'd been. I had all the bits for the climax, but the spaces between bits were going to kill it for me.
Which is all a long-winded way of saying y'all are going to be getting rewrite metrics for a while.
Rewrite Progress
| |
26 / 172 (15.1%) |
Comments: Out of 26 (single-spaced; I am paper-cheap) pages, I have eight with writing on them that I want to keep. Eight. And two scenes. Out of my first three chapters, I have two whole scenes that I still think work.
I hope to God the rest of the book isn't this far off target.
Good Bits: You must be joking.
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