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Onward and upward
Jun. 19th, 2007 11:45 pmYay, progress!
Major, major progress.
Most importantly, I've completely excised the main scenes and concepts which had been driving me to gnaw on the carpet. While the occasional section is still a little skeletal, I now have a solid framework with no real gaps, as such.Plot holes and inconsistencies galore, but nothing that just says "More Here".
I've also managed to make chapter 7 it work within its context, and do its job as a cohesive part of the story. I was stressing out over feeling like that chapter was random and totally pointless apart from my needing to introduce characters, but of course, I was trying too hard. Once I'd worked out the problem and built up the group dynamic in the right order, the tension crackled back onto the page as it becomes obvious there's an Approaching Train Wreck. Hurrah! Of course, it still needs a great deal of polishing of dialogue and tweaking of presentation, but the appropriate sentiments and information are now expressed and the whole scene feels like it belongs rather than just being stuck on the page, so I'm happy with it as a rough cut.
Now I've trimmed the biggest bits of chaff, the next step is going through the chapters I have now, point by point, and transcribing the plot points, thread counts, problems, and hopeful additions into the Big Excel Plotsheet, so that I see the entire plot at a glance, cogitate over it as a whole, then get on to actually doing what I'd hoped to start with: working chapter by chapter.I'll probably find more carpet-gnawing moments that I just don't happen to remember at the moment as I go, but I'm hopeful there won't be anything on the scale of what I've already dealt with.
Yay! This is what editing's all about!
Major, major progress.
Most importantly, I've completely excised the main scenes and concepts which had been driving me to gnaw on the carpet. While the occasional section is still a little skeletal, I now have a solid framework with no real gaps, as such.
I've also managed to make chapter 7 it work within its context, and do its job as a cohesive part of the story. I was stressing out over feeling like that chapter was random and totally pointless apart from my needing to introduce characters, but of course, I was trying too hard. Once I'd worked out the problem and built up the group dynamic in the right order, the tension crackled back onto the page as it becomes obvious there's an Approaching Train Wreck. Hurrah! Of course, it still needs a great deal of polishing of dialogue and tweaking of presentation, but the appropriate sentiments and information are now expressed and the whole scene feels like it belongs rather than just being stuck on the page, so I'm happy with it as a rough cut.
Now I've trimmed the biggest bits of chaff, the next step is going through the chapters I have now, point by point, and transcribing the plot points, thread counts, problems, and hopeful additions into the Big Excel Plotsheet, so that I see the entire plot at a glance, cogitate over it as a whole, then get on to actually doing what I'd hoped to start with: working chapter by chapter.
Yay! This is what editing's all about!
