For two weeks, I’ve been rewriting my newest WIP. Not editing. Rewriting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now it’s totally off the rails, and I’m only on chapter 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I tried to make it more involving, make the main character more sympathetic instead of accepting of everything. I ended up making her a lovesick puppy pining for some eye candy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the potential, all the fun in the story, is gone. I’m trying to make it logical, give it a plot, make it a typical fantasy story. I’m trying to extend a story line, establish the side stories, introduce characters that will show up later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s logical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s dry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s boring as hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s not to say the first draft wasn’t boring. The first draft’s main character accepted the Mean Spirit and ran with it. There was no conflict. Oh, there was a plot. There was a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It reads like the first hundred pages or so, I’m trying to get my legs under me. By the first quarter, I had a clue. I dropped things here and there that, to be honest today, I have no idea what they meant (I wrote this first draft before having a Story Bible). So with that in mind, I started to sit down and edit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next thing I know, I’m rewriting the first chapter because of the deep edit cuts I did in chapter three. The main character should have a lot more questions than she does. But I because i know the answers, I don’t know the questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I need to walk away from this story and come back to it and choose to rewrite it. The more I write, the more it’s getting away from me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for reading, I’ve read a couple of gay romance novels that were really good, and others that said to me, “If I had that character, I’d do this instead.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One I was reading at the same time as writing this one and I was thrilled with the characters–until book 2. A friend of mine said, “In Book 2, they always take the character you cherish and do something horrific to him.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The author did just that. I didn’t finish book two because i was disgusted–more at myself for being led on. I suppose that’s part of the formula (hell, I did it in Book 3 of Grimaulkin’s <\/em>series).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I took out my cards one day and asked, “What should my next writing project be?” I don’t remember the exact card, but its meaning was clear: something new and different. Because my life is taken up with dialysis, kid, work, and sleep, a brand new writing project doesn’t show up there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Part of me wants to write to market. Part of me wants to write to write. All of me has no idea what to do next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For two weeks, I’ve been rewriting my newest WIP. Not editing. Rewriting. And now it’s totally off the rails, and I’m only on chapter 4. I tried to make it more involving, make the main character more sympathetic instead of … Continue reading