The Axe

[kmhirosaki]

I talk a lot about how the process of writing Summerhill has been a difficult one. I'd like to go into some more detail as to why it's been such a rough road (and moreover, why the road has since smoothed out considerably

Comments

[ext_423042]

Cool! I now have a vague idea of what Summerhill is about. Your grief about it is what makes me really curious about reading it, though. :)

[sci_the_cheetah]

I tell myself all the time that my writing isn't good enough. I'm actually doing the same thing with my own novel that was written for NaNoWriMo. But that decision came a lot faster for me than it did for you for a simple fact: Right from the start, Kandrel hated the characters. He said that the story just seemed to simply be on the paper, but the characters didn't reach out and grab him. They didn't feel real. So, I'm going back and learning about what the characters want and who they are. And while this story was based off a short story I had written, I think I'm even going to throw out that short story, keep the characters, and even change how the two of them met. But overall, I think it's going to be for the greater good of story telling. I hate Kandrel for how mean he is sometimes, but I love him for how much better of a writer he's making me.

[voicespider]

I find that tossing something and rewriting it tends to lean towards far better material as well. I actually like your point about the fact that when you revise you are basically doing the same thing.

I've only ever rewritten from scratch on short stories up until this point. I have to say you should be commended for having the otter-danglies to be able to do that to a full novel. Specially one of that length that you have placed that much effort and time into.

But from the sounds of it, the new draft is not only bigger, but better, which is always a good thing. (and hopefully will require less editing in the end)

Keep it up my ottery friend.