gillpolack @ 2015-08-04T11:59:00
Chapter Five turned out to be tricksy. You've possibly guessed that, since I almost finished a draft several days ago and the 'almost' lasted long. I now, in fact, have finished a draft and it's quite different to its previous manifestations and it makes sense of a lot of stuff and... I now have to shed a few thousand words in the remaining chapters. That's the trouble with unexpected insights, they cost words, and the trouble with them late in the process is they cost words when all the words have been allocated. Chapter Six has much detail and far less theory, so I hope to lose 1000 words there. And my Chapter Five has done evil things to my last ten thousand words, so they're kinda up for grabs. Some of the content will remain, but the argument has developed. All this means is that my book is much scarier than I had meant it to be.
What I'm noticing is that this is quite different to the way I write a novel. The changes are dire, but I still have my underlying argument and I still have the same body of evidence. It's closer to a genre novel than to a literary novel because of the underlying body of evidence (which structurally meets the same needs as the plot points and story arcs one ends for a genre novel) but it really isn't like either. Some of the writing processes overlap, which is reassuring.
Anyhow, I'm down to my last twenty thousand words. The end is in sight. And very few of those words need to be written fro scratch, because I have early drafts of much of it. This is good, for three chapters more and I'm down to editing.
My eyesight plays a very odd role in this. I had to re-read Chapter Five two extra times just to make sure I was making sense, for I read what I wanted to read at some stages, because reading what was on the page was disrupted. At this moment I am very thankful for Van and Stu, who are also reading it. Some journeys by trapeze need the safety net.
On a happier note, I've discovered that I am much closer to reading things normally than I was 2 weeks ago. I'll be back to normal editing and etc in a week or so (which is good, for I have a copy-editing job to do, and it's a fun one), even if the eye isn't fully functional. I don't know if this means the eye is clearing or if it means I'm learning to use it more effectively, but either way works for me.
What I'm noticing is that this is quite different to the way I write a novel. The changes are dire, but I still have my underlying argument and I still have the same body of evidence. It's closer to a genre novel than to a literary novel because of the underlying body of evidence (which structurally meets the same needs as the plot points and story arcs one ends for a genre novel) but it really isn't like either. Some of the writing processes overlap, which is reassuring.
Anyhow, I'm down to my last twenty thousand words. The end is in sight. And very few of those words need to be written fro scratch, because I have early drafts of much of it. This is good, for three chapters more and I'm down to editing.
My eyesight plays a very odd role in this. I had to re-read Chapter Five two extra times just to make sure I was making sense, for I read what I wanted to read at some stages, because reading what was on the page was disrupted. At this moment I am very thankful for Van and Stu, who are also reading it. Some journeys by trapeze need the safety net.
On a happier note, I've discovered that I am much closer to reading things normally than I was 2 weeks ago. I'll be back to normal editing and etc in a week or so (which is good, for I have a copy-editing job to do, and it's a fun one), even if the eye isn't fully functional. I don't know if this means the eye is clearing or if it means I'm learning to use it more effectively, but either way works for me.
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