Okay – That Sucks

So I’m editing the second novel of the White Dragon Black series, ‘Bindings & Spines’. I finished this novel a couple years ago now, and in some ways it shows. My writing has improved over the course of this time, and I’m glad it has. Not that there is anything horribly wrong about the writing in this novel, but it is nice to know that I am still capable of moving my skill forward.

The first chapter needed some tweaking and that was fine, it was no more than I had come to expect from my editor at Xchyler Publishing during the edits of ‘Tomorrow Wendell’. When I got to the second chapter however, it …lacked. There was little purpose or reason to it. It certainly didn’t continue to draw the reader in.

I did the easy edits to it and skipped ahead to chapter three to see what was going on there and how it related back to two. I found it too wasn’t quite enough either.

Accepting the flaw in my work, I returned to chapter two and reread it, hoping for some idea what to do. Nothing came. I went back and skimmed through three again. One comment from my editor regarding a a small scene caught my eye and made me think. I came up with a little aside to interject, to explain the scene, which then triggered my mind to realize how I could use the idea it to spice up chapter two.

A little on-line research to establish the creature bringing the conflict and I thought I was good to go.

I went back once more to chapter two and found the place where the new material could go, marked it and then opened an new page. I put Queen’s ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’ into my ears and let my fingers go… 1800 words later, that new scene is almost wrapped up. It will involve further edits as I go forward, but I think it is worth it. It tells more about my character, his world, and gives the reader a chance to get their blood stirring a bit.

I wasn’t glad to have to do this sort of major work – especially this soon into the story – but I rewrote an entire chapter for the first one so why not this one too?

Filed under: Writing Tagged: Bindings & Spines, current work in progress, editor, edits, Jonathan Alvey, muse, novel, paranormal private investigator, plot, scene, Tomorrow Wendell, White Dragon Black Series, world building, writing, Xchyler Publishing