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davidgillonI've been having one of those subtly unsatisfying weeks, and finally pinned it down to the whole week being essentially avoidance behaviour because there was a change I needed to make in the novel and I was avoiding facing up to it.
The intimidatory part of this was it's the opening scene, literally page 1, chapter 1, and it has some really vital set up in it, and dialogue I don't want to lose. But it used to be a much larger scene and now it's a couple of pages tagged onto the rest of a chapter that happens somewhere else and with a different aesthetic. KT flagged it up as something that might want looking at right at the start if this, but it wasn't an absolutely must be changed, and I couldn't think of a good way to do it. So I put it off, and didn't have time to deal with it before I had to throw the entire novel back to KT and Jami for line-editing.
But I've been sitting here for a fortnight waiting for them to get back to me*, and time is weighing heavily, and there's that one job outstanding....
So last night was the third all-nighter of the week, and the first where I managed to actually set cursor to screen, because suddenly I figured out how to make the scene work. Reader, I physically moved it! I kept everything I needed, I just physically moved the whole scene from the stationhouse to the front of the warehouse where the rest of the chapter kicks off. Add in one order to the protagonist to go inside and figure out what the hell just happened, and it's no longer a semi-detached opening that has seen better days, it's an integral part of the chapter, and the novel, that throws our heroine at the problem and tells her to fix it.
Result! And now maybe I can get back to normal life?
* Initial feedback is good, KT: 'you kicked arse with those edits" (spot the Aussie) and Jami: "fantastic job, just a few minor..."
The intimidatory part of this was it's the opening scene, literally page 1, chapter 1, and it has some really vital set up in it, and dialogue I don't want to lose. But it used to be a much larger scene and now it's a couple of pages tagged onto the rest of a chapter that happens somewhere else and with a different aesthetic. KT flagged it up as something that might want looking at right at the start if this, but it wasn't an absolutely must be changed, and I couldn't think of a good way to do it. So I put it off, and didn't have time to deal with it before I had to throw the entire novel back to KT and Jami for line-editing.
But I've been sitting here for a fortnight waiting for them to get back to me*, and time is weighing heavily, and there's that one job outstanding....
So last night was the third all-nighter of the week, and the first where I managed to actually set cursor to screen, because suddenly I figured out how to make the scene work. Reader, I physically moved it! I kept everything I needed, I just physically moved the whole scene from the stationhouse to the front of the warehouse where the rest of the chapter kicks off. Add in one order to the protagonist to go inside and figure out what the hell just happened, and it's no longer a semi-detached opening that has seen better days, it's an integral part of the chapter, and the novel, that throws our heroine at the problem and tells her to fix it.
Result! And now maybe I can get back to normal life?
* Initial feedback is good, KT: 'you kicked arse with those edits" (spot the Aussie) and Jami: "fantastic job, just a few minor..."
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Date: 2015-10-16 07:30 pm (UTC)Woo and Hoo!
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Date: 2015-10-17 08:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-18 05:26 am (UTC)