fictional progress
I'm deleting bunches of text from my novel right now. Highlighting large chunks and erasing entirely. It's only temporary.
I want to follow one set of plotlines and find out where I'm at. I want to fill in the holes for these lines, since they contain all the characters who interpret the past for modern readers, and I want to check that these lines are consistent. I want to allow the mischief my characters have been brewing while I've been working on other things to come to the fore without destroying what has already gone. In other words, I want to focus.
It's rather fun to have created a temporary file and to delete all the main action and most of the minor action for a whole bunch of characters.
I'll print the modified version out and scribble all my changes. This is partly because this is the week for testing that I still have handwriting. Mostly, however, it's so that I maintain my version control. This is especially important today and tomorrow, because one of the other reasons I'm doing this check is because I know that some of my writing needs tightening and I have some diversions that need pruning (why do one thing when ten things at once are more entertaining?). My work over the last few weeks has really underlined the main paths I need to follow for the emotional side of things, so I can now start to reinforce those lines a bit more subtly.
Either this is going to be the best novel I've ever written, or it's going to be hopelessly over-managed. I'm curious as to which. I can't just follow my instincts and build in my normal way, because of the dissertation. The dissertation is reflective and questioning and it forces me to evaluate what I do and what other writers do. This means that at every point in my novel there are elements I need to rethink.
This rethinking is partly why I'm doing what I'm doing today. I was working on a dissertation chapter a bit yesterday and key techniques William Mayne and Connie Willis (whose books are still following me, obviously) and Alison Uttley and Elizabeth Chadwick and Harry Turtledove use are still clear in my mind. While my mind retains these techniques, I want to find out what I've done and fix any egregious stupidities. For instance, I want to absolutely ensure that my characters have emotional links to the work they've given their lives to and that those links have resonances with the plot. While I'm at it, I shall sort those plotlines for those characters, add my stray notes, trim excess and see what eventuates.
This will take me the whole of today and probably most of tomorrow. If I'm lucky it will take me into next week. It's the fun side of writing. One of the many fun sides of writing. I still find it strange to be using my history and analytical brain for my fiction, however. This is why I can't tell yet if the novel is appalling or rather good. I tested some of it on CSFG, a few weeks ago, however, and no-one actually said it was appalling. This is not a bad start.
I want to follow one set of plotlines and find out where I'm at. I want to fill in the holes for these lines, since they contain all the characters who interpret the past for modern readers, and I want to check that these lines are consistent. I want to allow the mischief my characters have been brewing while I've been working on other things to come to the fore without destroying what has already gone. In other words, I want to focus.
It's rather fun to have created a temporary file and to delete all the main action and most of the minor action for a whole bunch of characters.
I'll print the modified version out and scribble all my changes. This is partly because this is the week for testing that I still have handwriting. Mostly, however, it's so that I maintain my version control. This is especially important today and tomorrow, because one of the other reasons I'm doing this check is because I know that some of my writing needs tightening and I have some diversions that need pruning (why do one thing when ten things at once are more entertaining?). My work over the last few weeks has really underlined the main paths I need to follow for the emotional side of things, so I can now start to reinforce those lines a bit more subtly.
Either this is going to be the best novel I've ever written, or it's going to be hopelessly over-managed. I'm curious as to which. I can't just follow my instincts and build in my normal way, because of the dissertation. The dissertation is reflective and questioning and it forces me to evaluate what I do and what other writers do. This means that at every point in my novel there are elements I need to rethink.
This rethinking is partly why I'm doing what I'm doing today. I was working on a dissertation chapter a bit yesterday and key techniques William Mayne and Connie Willis (whose books are still following me, obviously) and Alison Uttley and Elizabeth Chadwick and Harry Turtledove use are still clear in my mind. While my mind retains these techniques, I want to find out what I've done and fix any egregious stupidities. For instance, I want to absolutely ensure that my characters have emotional links to the work they've given their lives to and that those links have resonances with the plot. While I'm at it, I shall sort those plotlines for those characters, add my stray notes, trim excess and see what eventuates.
This will take me the whole of today and probably most of tomorrow. If I'm lucky it will take me into next week. It's the fun side of writing. One of the many fun sides of writing. I still find it strange to be using my history and analytical brain for my fiction, however. This is why I can't tell yet if the novel is appalling or rather good. I tested some of it on CSFG, a few weeks ago, however, and no-one actually said it was appalling. This is not a bad start.