I’m about 21,000 words into my novel, which is the most I’ve ever been. The fact I’m working on my Chapter 4 fills me with so much pride that I can almost ignore the fact that I’m behind my hopeful estimate.
Chapter 3 was tough. I knew where I wanted it to end (at least I thought I did), but every step getting there felt like 10, and I ended up reworking it a lot. It’s the first time we get into the boy’s head, so it felt important. I also really wanted to stress how bad his life is and how capable he is without it turning into misery porn. This will be a hard balance that I don’t think I’ll nail until a few drafts in.
It’s interesting to write something that I’m not letting myself fully edit. Lots of things to do later, and I have complaints that I want to fix, yet I know if I sit down to fix them right now, I’ll never finish the book and just keep reworking the first twenty pages until I give up. I know that because I’ve done that on every other book.
Some things I’m constantly working on: active voice, less passive tenses, more apparent characterization through actions instead of words (hard to balance when its all words!), and building a supporting cast of characters that can keep up.
I’m SO excited to get to the middle of this book, but I have to get through this first. I thought about going out of order but it didn’t feel right. I’m going on this adventure with him, I suppose.
Once I get through ‘part 1’ (which is coming up shortly) I’ll do one thorough pass before generating it into an epub or similar file that makes it for easy reading on phones or ereading devices. I think that’ll be nice.
Those who have read my chapter 1, thank you. Means so much! I hope to get more eyes on my chapter 2 and 3 shortly, the reviews I got about chapter 1 really helped my figure out some direction in my book that I hope to repeat for future ones.
I think Chapter 4 won’t take nearly as long as chapter 3, in part because I’ve already written most of it. However, it is a new perspective dramatically different (and critical to nail), so we’ll see. As long as I make steady progress, that’s OK with me.
Some other notes:
- I need to make some nice fat people, because it’s starting to look fatphobic. The simple answer as to why every fat person so far has been a dick is that the environment is so bad that anyone who has enough food to be fat with literally has to be a selfish asshole for that to work. But what’s done is done, perhaps.
- I’m constantly warring between “putting it on too thick” and “not putting it on enough” when it comes to gore and dark tones. I have to stop worrying and just do it. The pass comes later.
- I think I have to start reducing my quality expectations even further to get more out on time. This chapter 3 is probably my roughest yet, but frankly, it should be even worse so I can get through more! But baby steps.
I hope to see you all very soon.
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