The Stinging Bite of Truth
Well, it seems I was riding some sort of high when I wrote the second novel… so long ago now, and it makes me a little worried about #3.
‘Bindings & Spines” is still a good story, don’t get me wrong, but it is…wordy. A lot of the edits is cutting. My personal editor suggest cuts and I tried to follow as well as I could, while still holding the things I thought I need in there. Now my beta reader suggests cuts and I try to take that advice seriously as well. Tomorrow Wendell wasn’t as much about cuts, but additions to solidify the world and now I’m fighting a totally different dragon. But since both of these two, who I trust and respect, are saying ‘trim it down’, I have little choice but to do so.
There is less metaphor and more description. I think that is part of the problem. TW was rife with metaphor and simile. Instead of ‘felt like a pinate after a boisterous party’, I have four paragraphs of detailed issues. Having identified the problem will, I hope, go a long way to resolving it. This will also bring the word count down, making it much closer to ‘Tomorrow Wendell’ in length.
It’s hard to hear critiques some times. It is also far to easy to tell yourself, ‘but they don’t get it’ — thing is… they do. They especially ‘get it’ when it’s people who have read a lot of your work before
Alas, I’m human. The important thing s tat I have accepted it and, by accepting it, allowed myself to see why thus opening myself to understand the difference from the first to the second novel.
I will never stop learning my craft, that’s part of what makes being a writer such a great job.
Filed under: Writing Tagged: beta reader, Bindings & Spines, characters, current work in progress, editor, edits, novel, paranormal, paranormal private investigator, plot, Urban Fantasy, White Dragon Black Series, wierd thoughts, world building, writing
