Inklings & Musings

New Material

The revision of Chapter 5 is going well.  I added 2000 words today to the middle of it.  The need was obvious.  I had a long stretch of nothing just after the opening paragraphs trying to disguise itself as scene while bridging the more interesting Chapter 4 with the rest of the book.  Some readers will indulge these little lapses in writing judgement, but as a rule, I do not.  I also am not very indulgent when it comes to multi-page descriptive passages that don't advance the plot (J.K. Rowling) or multi-page history/back story indulgences (Tolkien), even when they took 30 years to develop, are intricate, intelligently written, and fascinating as stand-alone material.  It's hard as a reader to patiently wade through material barely related to the advancement of the plot when there is an interesting story to get back to.  Skimming is my usual defense when it comes to these sorts of writing issues.

Since I am a new novelist, I can't afford these sorts of indulgences or lapses.  Editors and agents are as impatient as I am out of necessity.  With slush piles and queries constantly backlogged, they usually reject manuscripts with these sorts of issues unless the rest of the material is truly engaging.  Since I cannot be sure that mine is, the order of the day is revision, revision, revision.  I don't want an agent or editor skimming.  Every word needs to count.

The solution to my problem was to merge two needs.  First, there was a need to excise or develop the bridge part of Chapter 5 into something more interesting.  Second, there was a need to show more of a developing relationship between the two main characters.  Voila!

Actually, it's not as simple as that.  I spent all weekend coming up with bits of scenes that would fit in that part of the novel that showed both character development and relationship development, but it was fun work.  I am very pleased with the result.  Now I just need to do a "read-aloud" session on that chapter and send it in the direction of the Wise Reader.

One of my buddies from Orson Scott Card's Boot Camp challenged us last summer to get those manuscripts out there.  That is my goal, but I want to send out a manuscript that has already been revised and edited to the best of my current ability.  Hopefully, I will be able to send the complete manuscript out in a month or so.