Fast Means Slow.

First let me apologize for being super late yet again. Last week I had the beginning of a four-day fast planned and I wanted to delay the post so I could write about how that was going.

It sucked.

It’s taken the better part of three days to feel partly normal again, and I’ve never known such a total absence of energy, enthusiasm or motivation. And I don’t normally want to do anything anyway!

Enough said about that.

Slugging Through the Book.

There’s nothing constructive available in criticizing myself for not having gotten further than Chapter 5. It’s aggravating, but I have a lot going on. So what constructive can I say?

Firstly, anyone who’s crawled naked through the thorns and brambles of revising your first novel, I salute you! Those few novels I’ve read before and scoffed at the unpolished and seemingly unprofessional finish that I had to wade through, I take it all back. Except for one writer, who shall remain nameless; although I still regard those works of his which I have read as bum-fodder, I at least recognize the effort that went into their production.

Variations on a Theme.

The issue of having people talk consistently in character seems to have settled down by Chapter 5, at least in terms of language. I’m encountering a few things I don’t think the characters would say, however. This is actually harder to straighten out whenever something needs to be set up correctly for later on, in order not just for the plot to play out but for the reader’s subconscious to wonder what you’re alluding to.

Most of the other issues I’m coming across are with scene setting, balancing show and tell, and making sure there’s enough description without going down too far into detail.

Some places could also benefit from including a little back story. So far I’m thinking Bessie, the Butler and the world they live in need a little more backstory injected, but rather than shove some kind of info-dump into the readers hands and have them put the book up or use it to hold a window open, I need to figure out exactly what the backstory should be and where to include it.

Chapter 5 on the other hand is a different story. It doesn’t read at all well.  I tried to cram too much into it, having four separate goals for the chapter, including a subplot that I’m not even on the fence about, I’m actively considering dropping it entirely. Later on in the writing, that particular subplot began to feel contrived and it seemed unnecessary to the telling of the story, so it’s looking like this particular chapter is the similar to the bum-fodder I alluded to above, except this chapter has more grammatical errors, is not as engaging and is incredibly slow to start with.

Technique.

English cream tea, except with coffee.

My goal of concentrating on story-arc rather than detail is sound, but it doesn’t feel natural not to pick apart and criticize something I don’t particularly like, even if it’s quite clear I intend to rewrite it, so I’m of the opinion that I’ll need a second read-through before I can pull together all my corrections and get on with the second draft.

One thing that I’m finding helpful is a list of questions I found intended for Beta Readers from 15 Questions to Send Beta/First Readers (please steal). Obviously I’m not that bothered by catching all the grammatical, spelling, punctuation or capitalization errors, although I do mark them up, and I’m not that bothered about whether I think my writing style suits the genre. Firstly, I think my writing style should, because why write otherwise, but secondly I haven’t established the genre anyway. I’m aiming dystopian, but we’ll see.

Nose to the Wheel, Shoulder to the Grindstone.

That’s how it feels I go about things, these days.

I’m about a third of the way through the first reading. If I had sod-all else to do, I’d be done before dinner today. However, that’s not the case.

Anyway, it’s back to work with other tasks for me.

Enjoy your week, and if you find yourself bored for a few moments, relish them!

Categories: Readthrough, The Old Man, Work Update