*clears throat* No, this is not a religious post. Nor am I catholic. But I need to confess!
I finished my zero draft of Under The Surface last week (Cue chair dancing *dances*). I say zero draft, because instead of a last line it has "...". I say zero draft, because the second and third to last chapters consist of. "[FILL IN A SCENE THAT MAKES SENSE AND TIES UP ALL LOOSE ENDS. STAT. Oh, and btw, that political conflict? You might want to find a solution that is satisfying. Kthxbye.]".
Uhm... yeah.
Even though the story is out there... it is ugly. Like a giant, smudgy pencil sketch with all kinds of wrong lines, before the artists moves in with pretty colours to make it all shiny. And y'know... fill in the blanks. Cause those gaping plot holes (*cough*A new character showing up 200 pages in that's the MCs BFF, but was never mentioned before *cough*) that could swallow an entire dimension, won't fix themselves.
So... I've been revising. I have my notebook with what needs to be fixed and I have the print out of my dear novel. I've been waiting for this part of the work process FOREVER. I like making a novel prettier and seeing if the character motivation works, if it has good pacing and structure... though sometimes I doubt myself and wonder if I'm not making it more of a disaster. Gah.
But yes, the confession I wanted to make? I've been cheating on UtS. You see, there's this other, shiny idea in my head and it won't let me go. I've been swatting it away, dutifully making notes so that I wouldn't forget my ideas and telling it it has to wait til 2011, by which time I hope to have these revisions over with. But this shiny idea is persistent (Disclaimer: Shiny Idea Syndrome ™can lead to adultery on previous projects) and so this morning instead of working on revisions, I WROTE WORDS. Which was so not my plan. But I like those words and they're good words. And the story has spark and wit and voice!
Dilemma.
I think I'll have to set myself an 'edit so many pages and then you get to work on the other novel' deadline, because it won't shut up. Yeah... that's what I'll do.
Thanks for listening.
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4 comments:
Teehee, you should totally copyright Shiny Idea Syndrome...it really does exist!
And the book was already pretty awesome to begin with, so I'm sure it's going to be great!! Stop worrying :p
Ah yes, SNIS (shiny new idea syndrome) or SIS (without the new) but SNIS looks better I think. I posted about that on my blog a long time ago. Then again, if finishing a draft recently, I wouldn't consider it cheating but I always insist on taking weeks or even months before going back to work on a finished draft. I need to get that space in order to work efficiently on edits and rewrites. So, I see no problem starting a new novel while the other one sits back, marinating.
aww man! :D Persist, compadre! Persist! Heck, take out a restraining order on the stalker! :D But I feel ya. L'ho provato sulla mia pelle. Take that, Rhys
Erica - Awww, thank you so much! *hugs* I'm tryyyyyyyyyying! But yes, SNIS! It's evil and yet so FUN.
Dawn - I've been writing this draft for so long, that I barely remembered the start, so I thought the marination process was complete for now. *gg* Usually I wait to get some distance as well, but I sort of wanted to finish it, before I chicken out of edits. Haha. Thank your for your comment!
Sam - LMAO!!! I am persisting. THIS IS ME PERSISTING. You see that? The thing is? It's not even Rhys. It's someone else. *coughs* I have no idea what that Italian means, but it sounds good!
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