Damn!
Nearly a thousand words of chapter 14 done so far, and most of it will have to be scrapped or re-written. I'd gotten the timing wrong. I'd been writing all the characters as being exhausted as they went to school, after the big battle at the end of chapter 12 and start of chapter 13. But I've just looked back at my timeline and seen that the battle was on a Saturday night. (It's so easy to forget.) So they'll have all Sunday to rest up. Bother!
Thank goodness I hadn't written all that much yet.
Haven't made as much progress on chapter 14 yet as I'd like. A lot of my effort so far has been in trying to plan the thing out; there are, by this stage of the story, quite a few different plot threads going, and some of them are in urgent need of updating. I haven't finished this yet, but there's enough done to be able to write some opening scenes.
As far as chapter 13 is concerned…I've had some notes back from some of the pre-readers, and there's at least one scene that's going to need some careful attention, and possibly a complete re-write. (Thanks, Abdiel, you were dead right about Tux-boy.) But it's going to be a while before I get all the commentary back: at least a month, probably.
The chapter has undergone two name changes now, amusingly enough. The title that I used in the teaser—"The Face of the Enemy: Crescent Moon and New Moon"— makes it sound as if the face of the enemy is festooned with moons. Not quite what had in mind. For the pre-reader edition of the full chapter, I changed it to "New Moon: The Face of the Enemy". (Making this the first chapter ever to have a main-title change away from the "preview" titles listed on the SM4200 home page.) But of course this revised title was no better. I've now made it "The Face of the Enemy (New Moon Rising)" which I think avoids the problem but still gets across what I wanted. And, of course, restores the title on the home page.
posted by Angus @ 9:47 am
4 comments
4 Comments:
well, nevertheless the gang IS human after all, so they could still be tired by monday if the battle was tough enough. and i had a thought. unless you have some significant increase in dear Iku's confidence and skill level (or maybe moreso if she does), and depending on her involvement in said battle, she could be exhausted longer than the others. just a thought.
sounds like you have some good pre-readers there. like i've said once before, i'd love to be one, but i'd be afraid i wouldn't catch something like that, or wouldn't be able to give the best criticism and suggestions i could, because i'd be...you know...squeeing over getting to be one of the first reading it ;D but who knows. good luck with all that.
Amanda: Re the lack of sleep: nahh, it's okay. I've been working things over this morning and I can re-cast most of it so it'll work reasonably well. I've also finished plotting the chapter out (the main points, anyway).
Re Iku: there will be a fair bit about Iku in chapter 14. Chapter 13 gives a broad hint about her problems, and they are explored more fully in chapter 14. 'Nuff said for now!
As for pre-reading…here's what I tell my pre-readers when I send a chapter out:
What I'm after, as ever:
—Technical problems. Bad spelling? Bad grammar? Phrasing that simply don't make sense?
—Stylistic problems. Are there parts that leave you cold? Is it too melodramatic? Details on why it does or does not work for you would be a big help, if you can work this out.
—Logical problems. Does the story bite its own tail? Does it contradict itself, or earlier chapters? Is it simply unbelievable, for whatever reason?
…along with any particular chapter-specific points (in this case, some concerns I have about how things are structured), so that the pre-readers can take special note of this.
Some pre-readers offer a lot of feedback, some hardly any. (Those who consistently offer hardly any tend to drop off the list.) I've got at least one guy who goes through the whole chapter line-by-line. I don't always agree with what he says, but it's incredibly valuable all the same. (But of course it takes a long time, both for him and for me.)
Heh…back when I finished chapter 9, there was one pre-reader (who, sadly, has since opted out of doing it again) who argued with me for a couple of months over some story points. I ended up doing major rewrites of several scenes. The chapter was much better for it.
i'm glad Iku will be getting more screen time, as she's pulling my heartstrings in the worst way and i can't pin down why. i'm very curious to see what her problems are and the meaning of some of her dreams and drawings. i have my suspiscions but i have the feeling i'm WAY off.
back to the pre-reading..i think i would tend to be one of those ones who doesn't say a whole lot. i may be more likely to catch grammar and spelling mistakes than much else, which is important in itself but i digress. i'm slightly afraid of offending the author, and i think that's how some people are when it comes to these things.
i'm in the middle of trying to write my first novel, which if i remember correctly i'm up to about...almost 40,000 words or so? i'm not at home so i can't check. either way its getting to be about 23 pages long at font size 12. this is the longest thing i've ever written, and i never realized just how difficult it is to write something at length (and i'm a long-winded person so this is saying something!). when it comes to the people who are reading it to give me suggestions and such, most just gush about how great it is and they want me to write more -- NOW -- but i can't get much out of them since they absolutely refuse to look at it objectively. thankfully one of my friends is very critical (at least when it counts) and just says what she thinks, sometimes more rudely than i'd like, but i love her all that much more because of it.
now that i've seriously begun my own project, i have a greater respect for people like you who put so much effort into the writing you do.
Hello, you haven't updated in a while..hop everything's going fine with your writing and your personal life as well.
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