Chapter Twelve
I have reached the crux of my novel at last. At this point, most of the actual work is done. Except for the actual writing of the second half of the manuscript, which is more physical labor than anything. All the groundwork and everything has been laid out, the hero's path has been revealed, and so on. I'm very content with the amount of clues that will come into the final revelations and the pacing of the action. Not that there's not work to be done in the editing process. Obviously. However, I think the work will be less structural at this point and more typographical and fixing discrepancies. I think I actually have a solid story working here, for once. It's not all over the place. There aren't (what did the Meat-Rag have? twenty six main characters?) so many characters that one has no idea who the story is talking about at any given moment. I have exposition and backgrounds of characters. They have pertinent memories that both advance the plot AND add depth.
This is the first time I feel like a (long-form) story is actually GOING well from a writing standpoint. I've had the basic gist of the plot down since the beginning, but its previous incarnations have been pretty awfully told. Bear in mind that I have been working on this story for a year and a half now and started over four times. I feel like I've learned enough about writing by now that I'm confident in what I'm doing. Not cocky. Not "OMG THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVARRRRR", but confident that at least it's passable.
Now I have to study. GRE's are in less than two weeks.
Also, I need to work on a couple of short stories, only I haven't been inspired. I only have one that I really like. I suppose I could re-do the one that I wrote horribly last summer. I need short fiction for my portfolio, because holy crap I'm applying to grad school in like six months.
-tom
sic luceat lux
This is the first time I feel like a (long-form) story is actually GOING well from a writing standpoint. I've had the basic gist of the plot down since the beginning, but its previous incarnations have been pretty awfully told. Bear in mind that I have been working on this story for a year and a half now and started over four times. I feel like I've learned enough about writing by now that I'm confident in what I'm doing. Not cocky. Not "OMG THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVARRRRR", but confident that at least it's passable.
Now I have to study. GRE's are in less than two weeks.
Also, I need to work on a couple of short stories, only I haven't been inspired. I only have one that I really like. I suppose I could re-do the one that I wrote horribly last summer. I need short fiction for my portfolio, because holy crap I'm applying to grad school in like six months.
-tom
sic luceat lux