I've now rewritten 6 and a half chapters. The last 3 were almost a complete rewrite. I keep telling myself that when the novel is actually completed I'll have less rewriting to do. But that's the part I enjoy so it doesn't comfort me.
It's been a struggle not to go on the Inernet to ostensibly look up things. We all know where that leads. One thing to another. Each day I promise myself that I won't do that. I might have to check something out through Gurunet but I don't have to go any farther once I get my answer. Still, I continue to do it.
I don't launch my email program but if I launch my browser, Mozilla, I can see my email from my home page. Ok, so I don't answer it. That's the only thing I resist.
I have to stop all that. I have to get down to work. I can't get distracted. If I want to do these things I'll do them after I finish writing. This is my vow for the coming week.
Even with all my diversions I think I know more than I did. I might even know by now (page 80) who did it. And why. I have a lot of rewriting and changing of things ahead of me. There are 5 more chapters to go before I get to write a new chapter. Actually, there may not be that many because I took things from 10 and put them in 7. And I may have to lose two characters all together. But then I'll be adding a character who will get at least half a chapter. She was dead in my first version. How heady it is to bring someone back to life!
I know the prose I'm writing now is fairly lifeless. I also know I can change that later so I'm not letting it worry me too much. All in all it's been a battle. I don't recall going through this before. Oh, I've been in despair at times, but I never had this kind of trouble.
I just realized that I killed the wrong person again having done that once before in a YA book, Playing Murder, but I caught that one at around 100 pages. This time I didn't know I'd done it until I started rewriting.
It's caused me a lot of trouble. And other things have too...all those corners I got myself into. As it stands now there aren't any.
I keep wondering if ,without those corners am I writing a dull book? And then I remember they were corners I couldn't do anything about. I might get into some new ones as I go along and can only hope that they'll be ones I can write my way out of.
Those of you who've read my blog before know that I take any holiday I can. I mean, how could I possibly write on Presidents' Day?
Is this book dull? Is this book dull? Is this book dull?
2 comments:
The more I read about your troubles, the more I believe in outlines. I usually have the struggles you're going through in the outline phase of either a script or a book... which makes the writing a lot less stressful (though I almost always rework the story along the way).
I agree with Lee. I outline the heck out of everything I write (be it fic or nonfic, speech or essay or novel). And I always end up straying but at least it gives me a general path to work from and keeps me moving.
Post a Comment