I've been taking some very precisely calculated steps lately to take control of a lot of areas in my life I've been neglecting. This isn't a New Year's thing, mind you; more like the natural evolution of a process that began in earnest in November.
At any rate, one of the things I've reclaimed has been my writing. I've been working on a particular novel off and on for quite some time. I had hit around 200 pages, decided a lot of it just wasn't going where I wanted, cut 60 pages, wrote a little more, and then dropped the project pretty much entirely.
I'm working on this particular project again, and it makes me so happy. I'd lost track of some of the last round of changes I'd made, and after doing a review of my material, I can hardly contain myself. The story has taken a solid shape, and has practically started writing itself. My premise and world mechanics are hanging together. My missing bits where the plot hand-waving occurred are filling themselves in. I've also got some really fine writing in there, and I'm incredibly proud of all of it.
One of my big concerns has been whether the story was complex enough to hit publishable-novel length (because, let's face it, who's reading novellas?). Now, I have no fear I'm going to hit a publishable mark, and I may even exceed that and have a second chance to prune some more of the weaker material.
Whether it ever gets published is, of course, another matter entirely, and I'm trying to not concern myself with it at this point. The most important thing is to finish. That'll be an accomplishment all on its own, regardless of any other accolades I might seek.
Posted by andrea at January 11, 2005 10:57 PMI'm vaguely remembering a file I was shown by your mother once. It was on my hard drive before I last wiped it clean (I think). There was this one particular phrase that struck me in first a very wrong way and then in the exact right way. I remember . . .
". . . twilight's violet kiss."
and I remember thinking that if this were shortened to "twilight's violet." then it produced a delicious image for me.
Maybe it depends on the intended audience but at the time I had a number of such changes I could have suggested but for some reason decided not to.
I wonder if that is the same piece of writing?
Posted by: Jim Gramze on January 13, 2005 06:01 PMVery likely it is the same piece of writing. I sent it out to a number of beta readers in a pre-purged form, and unfortunately didn't get much feedback. It's too bad, because high-level feedback is really, really helpful. However, it doesn't look like you were doing that kind of read. :)
See, for a work in progress like this, the sort of reader information I'm looking for is along the lines of "This character is a moron and I hate him," or "They don't have chipmunks in England," and not "There should be a comma there." Polishing and correcting should only be undertaken once you've got the body of your story pretty much assembled, otherwise you'll never actually finish.
On a side not, I am confident the final piece won't be something you enjoy very much, just because of the kind of story it is. But no worries... I don't need everybody to like it, not even everybody I know. :)
Posted by: Andrea on January 13, 2005 07:30 PM