(no subject)
I've done a bit more work on the book.
The opening couple of chapters are shaping up nicely enough, as is (rather oddly) the end; I had a mini-epiphany last week as to what the closing scene should be, promptly wrote it down and heartily patted myself on the back. Regardless of when I get around to writing the rest of that final chapter, I feel like I have at least got that last few crucial words nailed.
This writing is becoming less linear as the project goes on, with ideas for bits and pieces cropping up all over the place, never in any helpful order. I still feel like I'm grappling with many aspects of the middle sections, both in terms of what-happens-when but also why-stuff-happens.
This is also particularly apparent in Chapter 3-ish, which no matter what angle I take seems to sit there staring back at me. It's a crucial-ish chapter as it contains a scene where the protagonist is given a task that triggers a series of events that play out over the story. It's an easy narrative trick and can be grating, but only if its blatant. Unfortunately, my takes on it to date have been mind-numbingly obvious - all I need is a wizard to walk into the tavern asking for a few good heroes to help him kill an evil dragon and I'd be back in Grade 6 mapping out dungeons on grid paper. So, I dance around this little mental block and draft up loose descriptions and random fragments of later chapters. I think my concern is that, if I don't nail this early chapter properly, I may not capture the protagonist and his motivations clearly enough.
Back to it.
The opening couple of chapters are shaping up nicely enough, as is (rather oddly) the end; I had a mini-epiphany last week as to what the closing scene should be, promptly wrote it down and heartily patted myself on the back. Regardless of when I get around to writing the rest of that final chapter, I feel like I have at least got that last few crucial words nailed.
This writing is becoming less linear as the project goes on, with ideas for bits and pieces cropping up all over the place, never in any helpful order. I still feel like I'm grappling with many aspects of the middle sections, both in terms of what-happens-when but also why-stuff-happens.
This is also particularly apparent in Chapter 3-ish, which no matter what angle I take seems to sit there staring back at me. It's a crucial-ish chapter as it contains a scene where the protagonist is given a task that triggers a series of events that play out over the story. It's an easy narrative trick and can be grating, but only if its blatant. Unfortunately, my takes on it to date have been mind-numbingly obvious - all I need is a wizard to walk into the tavern asking for a few good heroes to help him kill an evil dragon and I'd be back in Grade 6 mapping out dungeons on grid paper. So, I dance around this little mental block and draft up loose descriptions and random fragments of later chapters. I think my concern is that, if I don't nail this early chapter properly, I may not capture the protagonist and his motivations clearly enough.
Back to it.