“Why are you still awake?”
Jul. 17th, 2014 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mugenmineStuck
Draft 5
Chapter 1 @ 18063
Finally the noodley work can proceed! Fun things! I did the draft 4 read through the other week and it was okay. As usual, there are some bits that flow and most of the freshly rewritten parts are hella rough. But thankfully it's the right shape, although it's deflated in some bits. This week I ended up adding about 1K to chapter five as the big decision part was so abrupt that it was laughable. It went something like this:
John: Nope.
John: Okay.
Yeah I had thought I had fleshed out the whole eventual transition but it still needed some buffer inbetween to not feel so damn rushed so I took a few days padding that one out.
Chapter 1 @ 18063
Finally the noodley work can proceed! Fun things! I did the draft 4 read through the other week and it was okay. As usual, there are some bits that flow and most of the freshly rewritten parts are hella rough. But thankfully it's the right shape, although it's deflated in some bits. This week I ended up adding about 1K to chapter five as the big decision part was so abrupt that it was laughable. It went something like this:
John: Nope.
John: Okay.
Yeah I had thought I had fleshed out the whole eventual transition but it still needed some buffer inbetween to not feel so damn rushed so I took a few days padding that one out.
So today I started the aloud readthrough edit. Which for me is really fun. This tends to be the round where I start word chopping and try to get as spartan as I can. I don't think I've ever really been a flowery writer, well at least with my fanfic. I'd like to be Patricia McKillip or Tanith Lee, but that doesn't fit for these stories. It's strange. I have no idea if I have a voice. Can't tell yet...
But anywho. Lots of reading the sentences over and over changing words then reading the full paragraph. Fleshing out where things are too sparse and axing any signs of redundancy. If I see any similar phrasing on the same page, one of them will go. It's my version of editing Highlander. There can be only one of these adjectives or verbs! Now fight!
So perhaps less time will be spent at coffee shops and more in my bedroom where I can read porn aloud and not freak out people.
I read through most of my last fic Switch today becasue I was trying to figure out what time of the year I set it in. This current story takes place about a month after Switch and I can't tell what season it is! I think it's late spring.. I was happy that I still liked Switch. It's been over a year and I consider all of my past writing as suspect so it was a pleasant surprise. It's great when there's so much distance between yourself and a piece that it almost seems like you didn't write it. It's like the struggle of it has disappeared and you can enjoy it as a story. I'm so close to this current one that my eyes are practically bleeding... :-)
