Managed to get through another fifty pages of the Petra rewrite, so I’m still on schedule.
I believe I’m getting into the swing of the rewrite now. In addition to re-reading the next chapter before working on it, I’ve taken to making notes on it–simply describing what happens in each scene. This serves a couple of purposes: first, it’s part of that “getting acquainted” process I discussed last week. I don’t really outline, but with my previous two novels, I made little laundry lists of the events in each chapter. I didn’t do that with Petra. So now I’m doing it after the fact. This helps give me a “thousand foot” view of the novel, a bit of perspective.
Secondly, it gives me an opportunity to ask myself why each scene is necessary, exactly how each one advances the story. And if I can’t come up with a good enough answer, then I obviously have a problem.
It’s amazing to me how many of those problems can be solved the same way Alexander the Great solved the Gordian Knot . . . well, except maybe without the sword. Deletion is now the first thing I try when I’m up against a difficult passage. I have a separate document for any excised bits I might want to use later, so it’s become remarkably easy for me to cut stuff. And a surprising amount of the time, that does the trick.
The holidays are looming, with all its attendant challenges to my schedule. Sure, I have a good time with family and friends, as I hope you do, but still . . . you know how it is.
Write Club updates:
“What Really Happened That Night” has advanced to the second stage of consideration at Neo-opsis. Said Assistant Editor Stephanie Ann Johanson, “You’ve made me cry again.” Cool.
Sheila Williams at Asimov’s said that “Gone Black” was “very well done,” but she has a lot of stories on that subject at the moment. She also said, “I very much look forward to seeing something new from you, though.” Response time, about a month.
Moving on . . .
