Making Progress
Current word count for chapter 12: 6472.
I'm a little concerned that what I'm putting out now is going to seem rather slow. That's even more of a concern given that the biggest complaint I've had back about chapter 11 is that the opening was rather slow.
The trouble is, once Rei and Setsuna (oops, Itsuko and Sadako) get to talking seriously, there's an awful lot of information to get across — this is the point where I explain quite a few things, at last — and not much in the way of action. I'm trying to break the long talky bits up, but ... well, we'll see how it looks when I have the whole discussion finished. (It's not even close, yet.)
Just to be a bastard, here's a teaser scene fragment:
After a little Sadako said quietly, "I suppose you have questions."
Itsuko gave her a wry smile. "Where do I start?"
Sadako took another sip from her cup. Her cool red eyes studied Itsuko
in silence. Then she said, "Wherever you please. At this point, there
is ... very little I will not answer."
^_^
posted by Angus @ 4:51 pm
7 comments
7 Comments:
Bah. So what if it's wordy? Wordy is good. An excellent story is like soup; you bring it to a boil slowly. Or so I like to think, because my work is rather descriptive and talkative, too.
Wordy can be good sometimes. Though I understand that it can be difficult to find that balance between saying to little and dumping everything on the reader at once.
And by the way, that teaser was one of the most evil things that I have seen in weeks. You cruel person, you.
Evil Angus, evil! Bah..screw the people who don't want to read slow stuff. Slow stuff is okay because it's necessary to get the history and background information needed for the action stuff. All action is shallow. Slow is depth. And conversation between Sets and Rei can't be like..boring-slow because who isn't dying to hear what they have to say? It's probably pee-in-your-pants-from-anticipation slow!
Slow Works that Work:
-Begining of Fellowship of the Ring..sloooowwww. Birthday in Hobbiton? Isn't that great. When do people start dying?
-War of the Worlds..so slow I didn't get through the begining but I hear it's brilliant!
-A Princess Bride..like..okay she lives on a farm, we get it. But its good anyways!
See where I'm going with this? Did I make my point clear? I can't wait to be an English Teacher and use these examples just like this.
-Lynz.
Be fair, now. Chapter 11 *is* slow. Once the initial crisis -- ie, the cliff-hanger from chapter 10 -- is resolved, very little happens for the next 20,000 words. There's a lot of character stuff, and a few minor plot developments, but action-wise there's really not a lot going on.
That's not necessarily a flaw. Character development is important, especially in a story like this, and the byplay does advance things. Nevertheless, I don't think you can realistically call it fast-moving.
In chapter 12, I inevitably open with two simultaneous plot threads: Itsuko with Sadako, in which many questions are asked and answered; and Artemis as a prisoner. I'm trying to swap the threads back and forth to keep things going; otherwise the Itsuko thread is simply going to bog down in acres of verbiage. Seems to be working out so far.
Frankly, I love exposition. But apparently I"m in the minority there.
And that teaser falls under "cruel and unusual punishment", in my book!
:cry:
DRD1812
Well, that's the theory. ^_^ In practise I'm not sure how much of an effect it's having, really.
I just emailed you actually, and wanted to say that I didn't find Ch. 11 slow, so much as necessary.
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