Friday Rambling
"Forgive me father, for I have sinned."
*clears throat* No, this is not a religious post. Nor am I catholic. But I need to confess!
I finished my zero draft of Under The Surface last week (Cue chair dancing *dances*). I say zero draft, because instead of a last line it has "...". I say zero draft, because the second and third to last chapters consist of. "[FILL IN A SCENE THAT MAKES SENSE AND TIES UP ALL LOOSE ENDS. STAT. Oh, and btw, that political conflict? You might want to find a solution that is satisfying. Kthxbye.]".
Uhm... yeah.
Even though the story is out there... it is ugly. Like a giant, smudgy pencil sketch with all kinds of wrong lines, before the artists moves in with pretty colours to make it all shiny. And y'know... fill in the blanks. Cause those gaping plot holes (*cough*A new character showing up 200 pages in that's the MCs BFF, but was never mentioned before *cough*) that could swallow an entire dimension, won't fix themselves.
So... I've been revising. I have my notebook with what needs to be fixed and I have the print out of my dear novel. I've been waiting for this part of the work process FOREVER. I like making a novel prettier and seeing if the character motivation works, if it has good pacing and structure... though sometimes I doubt myself and wonder if I'm not making it more of a disaster. Gah.
But yes, the confession I wanted to make? I've been cheating on UtS. You see, there's this other, shiny idea in my head and it won't let me go. I've been swatting it away, dutifully making notes so that I wouldn't forget my ideas and telling it it has to wait til 2011, by which time I hope to have these revisions over with. But this shiny idea is persistent (Disclaimer: Shiny Idea Syndrome ™can lead to adultery on previous projects) and so this morning instead of working on revisions, I WROTE WORDS. Which was so not my plan. But I like those words and they're good words. And the story has spark and wit and voice!
Dilemma.
I think I'll have to set myself an 'edit so many pages and then you get to work on the other novel' deadline, because it won't shut up. Yeah... that's what I'll do.
Thanks for listening.
*clears throat* No, this is not a religious post. Nor am I catholic. But I need to confess!
I finished my zero draft of Under The Surface last week (Cue chair dancing *dances*). I say zero draft, because instead of a last line it has "...". I say zero draft, because the second and third to last chapters consist of. "[FILL IN A SCENE THAT MAKES SENSE AND TIES UP ALL LOOSE ENDS. STAT. Oh, and btw, that political conflict? You might want to find a solution that is satisfying. Kthxbye.]".
Uhm... yeah.
Even though the story is out there... it is ugly. Like a giant, smudgy pencil sketch with all kinds of wrong lines, before the artists moves in with pretty colours to make it all shiny. And y'know... fill in the blanks. Cause those gaping plot holes (*cough*A new character showing up 200 pages in that's the MCs BFF, but was never mentioned before *cough*) that could swallow an entire dimension, won't fix themselves.
So... I've been revising. I have my notebook with what needs to be fixed and I have the print out of my dear novel. I've been waiting for this part of the work process FOREVER. I like making a novel prettier and seeing if the character motivation works, if it has good pacing and structure... though sometimes I doubt myself and wonder if I'm not making it more of a disaster. Gah.
But yes, the confession I wanted to make? I've been cheating on UtS. You see, there's this other, shiny idea in my head and it won't let me go. I've been swatting it away, dutifully making notes so that I wouldn't forget my ideas and telling it it has to wait til 2011, by which time I hope to have these revisions over with. But this shiny idea is persistent (Disclaimer: Shiny Idea Syndrome ™can lead to adultery on previous projects) and so this morning instead of working on revisions, I WROTE WORDS. Which was so not my plan. But I like those words and they're good words. And the story has spark and wit and voice!
Dilemma.
I think I'll have to set myself an 'edit so many pages and then you get to work on the other novel' deadline, because it won't shut up. Yeah... that's what I'll do.
Thanks for listening.