Writing Fun, Novel Revisions & Plans to Freeze Time
Wow, has it really been two weeks since I posted something on here? Must...learn...to...freeze...time...
Life has been keeping me insanely busy lately. It's frustrating not having as much writing time as I used to, but I'm happy to say this about the writing time I do have: it's fun again. As I've babbled about in some previous entries, there was a long while where the whole writing process just became this really painful slog-fest. But now? Still work, but fun work. Maybe I'm just someone who needs a gazillion other demands on my time to keep from falling into writerly funks.
I've been revising chapter 6 of My Big Fat Epic Fantasy Novel, and I just have to say that getting rid of the prophecy from the original version was the Best. Decision. Ever. It requires a lot of rewriting, particularly for one character, but as I do that rewriting, I'm beginning to realize why a few people who critiqued the previous version didn't care for that character, often to the point that they were hoping I'd kill him off. It's surprising for me now to see how little I got into his head despite him being the protagonist (well, one of two protagonists). And I think that's a big factor in why he came off as unlikeable to some people: I barely scratched the surface, so he ended up seeming rather shallow and lacking the kind of internal conflict that the other protagonist has in spades.
So now I'm trying to dig a lot deeper as I revise this character's POV scenes, which has led to another surprise: I really don't know this guy as well as I thought I did. I had a similar problem with another character in the novel during the first draft. Like this guy, she's rather reserved, so I'm beginning to suspect that characters like that are just harder work for me. I'm waiting for them to open up, but that's totally not their style, so they keep mum and I end up writing them at the surface level since that's all I'm getting. So the lesson learned is that when the character is being reticent with all of the other characters in the story, they're probably being reticent with me too, so I need to be nosy and pushy and poke and prod them until I figure out what's going on inside their heads.
On that note, it's back to the chapter revisions, and this weekend I'll hopefully get to revising "Mortis Persona" (a big thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shvetufae , jakobdrud and jtglover for the helpful crits on that one).
Oh, and I need to work on that freezing time thing.
Life has been keeping me insanely busy lately. It's frustrating not having as much writing time as I used to, but I'm happy to say this about the writing time I do have: it's fun again. As I've babbled about in some previous entries, there was a long while where the whole writing process just became this really painful slog-fest. But now? Still work, but fun work. Maybe I'm just someone who needs a gazillion other demands on my time to keep from falling into writerly funks.
I've been revising chapter 6 of My Big Fat Epic Fantasy Novel, and I just have to say that getting rid of the prophecy from the original version was the Best. Decision. Ever. It requires a lot of rewriting, particularly for one character, but as I do that rewriting, I'm beginning to realize why a few people who critiqued the previous version didn't care for that character, often to the point that they were hoping I'd kill him off. It's surprising for me now to see how little I got into his head despite him being the protagonist (well, one of two protagonists). And I think that's a big factor in why he came off as unlikeable to some people: I barely scratched the surface, so he ended up seeming rather shallow and lacking the kind of internal conflict that the other protagonist has in spades.
So now I'm trying to dig a lot deeper as I revise this character's POV scenes, which has led to another surprise: I really don't know this guy as well as I thought I did. I had a similar problem with another character in the novel during the first draft. Like this guy, she's rather reserved, so I'm beginning to suspect that characters like that are just harder work for me. I'm waiting for them to open up, but that's totally not their style, so they keep mum and I end up writing them at the surface level since that's all I'm getting. So the lesson learned is that when the character is being reticent with all of the other characters in the story, they're probably being reticent with me too, so I need to be nosy and pushy and poke and prod them until I figure out what's going on inside their heads.
On that note, it's back to the chapter revisions, and this weekend I'll hopefully get to revising "Mortis Persona" (a big thanks to
shvetufae , jakobdrud and jtglover for the helpful crits on that one).Oh, and I need to work on that freezing time thing.