Dear Reader,
Word Raccoon’s brain is officially shutting down for the evening. Allegedly. She asks if I think she’s a troubadour or something.
No, WR, you are not. But you’re a fan of them.
She has been reading through her novel-in-progress all day, making notes on this read-through.
Most notably:
Two scenes/sections are still in the wrong place
One scene is fine except it needs some rearranging
There are several non-contexualized, abandoned letters
One scene is discussed (with different details) in a journal entry, too
There are still too many stray past-tense verbs that should have been kicked out of sections
All of that to say, it’s still a hot mess, and from today’s read through I “only” came up with 58 to-do items, but the bones are good, and they’re beginning to get some muscle on them. In fact, I actually enjoyed reading sections of it this time around.
(There are many, many, many more read-throughs to come.)
I’m sure I’ve shared this before, but when I can read a draft and my brain doesn’t snag on a page, I know it’s as good as I can make it. (Not someone else, me.) Not there yet.
For the first time ever while writing a novel writing, I think I’d like to expand it in a couple of directions just because I think it would be fun, but the reader would throttle me.
Here’s my biggest challenge right now: since Rebecca is in first person, present, the action is breakneck but is it literary yet? I’m trying, but I find that the most challenging part. Do I sacrifice speed for language? (Tempting.) And yet, speed guarantees the reader’s attention.
Well, sometimes slowing down is just as successful at gaining attention, isn’t it?
Totally open to suggestions over here, Dear Reader.
I need to go back and take a look at my first novel, because I did first person present there, and I dare anyone to tell me it’s not literary. I just haven’t gotten into the right gear yet for this I guess?
The first novel I wrote was such a labor of love. As is this one, though as I was reading through it today, I realized that my main character and I disagreed on the novel’s raison d’être, and that I could not permit. I am trying to set her to rights without overstating it.
WR overstates everything, doesn’t she?
Today’s novel time meant cutting down the word count, but not significantly. Then I added a bit back, and it’s now 70K. The slow climb tells me that the copy is cleaner than I had feared.
Still a couple of twists that I’m trying to decide if they’re cool or unbelievable.
The novel threads are:
Rebecca (main story thread that the others revolve around)
James
Elizabeth (that’s a new reveal; she’s also the newest to the novel)
And the last one is…
Nope. Not telling. Not yet. But soon. Maybe. Probably..
The James poem/clue is written. It’s maybe a little hokey, but also, it is carrying three levels of information, so I did my best. It also opens up another mystery thread, a slight one, but it was a question I had to ask myself and I realized that Rebecca would also ask that question.
It’s kinda fun when you surprise yourself when you’re writing.
WR is tired. Earlier it was so gray out, and then we had rain, but then, hallelujah, the sun. The most gorgeous burst of sun came traveling through, and though we were tired and worried about our novel and kinda mopey, suddenly we weren’t anymore. Sun always perks us right up. They really oughta bottle that stuff.
Sunny smiles at all the sun’s miles,
Drema