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Nov. 28th, 2003 02:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerWhen everyone who starts reading your novel stops at around page 30, for any of a multitude of reasons (too tired, not enough time, no, it's good really it is but I blah blah blah etc.), you know there's a problem.
When the author of the novel starts flipping through his own story and has to ask, "what the fuck is going on here?!", you know there's a problem.
When people ask me what the book's about, and I haven't the faintest bloody clue, you know there's a problem.
Starting tomorrow, I shall begin the process of slashing-and-burning a hell of a lot of the book. Like, 1/3 of the whole thing. I have come up with an alternate series of events which, although much less convoluted than the way the book is already, still will need a bit of grace and style if I'm gonna pull it off with any real coherence. Much of my problem is that I have created a huge world with a backstory all its own, and I'd need a Silmarillion-style history book to properly explain it all. Thus is the problem when one is trying to write part one of a 20+ park Babylon 5-style epic. Getting that first step down. I don't plan the revisions to take more than two weeks. Not unless I buckle down and get to it, right bloody now.
I know a couple of you have the original draft, and I appreciate whatever progress you guys've made so far. If anyone'd be interested in taking a look at the second (hopefully better) draft, please let me know. The more opinions I get, the better, really. There's a lot of good in this book that I don't want ruined or bogged bown by the bad.
Anyway, hope everyone's enjoying Thanksgiving. It's always a nice Holiday. These days, there's becoming more and more bittersweet, but I don't mind. There is something to be said for bittersweet.
When the author of the novel starts flipping through his own story and has to ask, "what the fuck is going on here?!", you know there's a problem.
When people ask me what the book's about, and I haven't the faintest bloody clue, you know there's a problem.
Starting tomorrow, I shall begin the process of slashing-and-burning a hell of a lot of the book. Like, 1/3 of the whole thing. I have come up with an alternate series of events which, although much less convoluted than the way the book is already, still will need a bit of grace and style if I'm gonna pull it off with any real coherence. Much of my problem is that I have created a huge world with a backstory all its own, and I'd need a Silmarillion-style history book to properly explain it all. Thus is the problem when one is trying to write part one of a 20+ park Babylon 5-style epic. Getting that first step down. I don't plan the revisions to take more than two weeks. Not unless I buckle down and get to it, right bloody now.
I know a couple of you have the original draft, and I appreciate whatever progress you guys've made so far. If anyone'd be interested in taking a look at the second (hopefully better) draft, please let me know. The more opinions I get, the better, really. There's a lot of good in this book that I don't want ruined or bogged bown by the bad.
Anyway, hope everyone's enjoying Thanksgiving. It's always a nice Holiday. These days, there's becoming more and more bittersweet, but I don't mind. There is something to be said for bittersweet.
