Finally! A post!
No, I haven’t given up on this blog. I’ve just been in a self-imposed exile for the last few weeks. Back at the beginning of January, I was all set to send out one of my early chapters to a CP when I discovered it was in much worse shape than I remembered. So I tried to tweak it into shape -- a little bit here, a little bit there, but it soon became apparent that the chapter required more than a tweak. It needed an overhaul. The current structure just wasn’t working.
As the days passed, I poured more and more time into that chapter, eventually vowing not to write another blog post until the chapter was in reasonable shape.
I’m happy (relieved) to report I finally reached that point. Kind of. The chapter flows more smoothly now, but still needs plenty of work. Nevertheless, it’s in good enough shape for my CP to read and that’s enough for now. Besides, I’ve learned that I can’t stare at a chapter for more than a couple of weeks before my eyes glaze over and my brain shuts down. I’ll need a couple of weeks (at least) before I can look at it objectively again.
So I expect to be posting on a regular basis again. Just in time for next week’s Insecure Writers post. Talk about perfect timing. My insecurity meter has already pegged out.
I do, however, have some good news to share. At one point during this revision from hell, I needed to go back to my first chapter and verify some fact. And for the first time ever, I was able to read one of my chapters and feel that it’s close to something a real writer might have written.
Progress!
Website of Ken Rahmoeller -- fantasy author, chemist, and lover of all things Hogwarts (Photo Courtesy of Scarluuk)
Boy, I can sure relate. The last ten or so times I tried to shorten my book's beginning, I ran into one thing after another that linked together so I couldn't delete even one scene. And then somebody in my local critique groups suggested the down-aging idea which meant my character wouldn't be setting up an orienteering course yet. Finally, a whole bunch of connected material became irrelevant to this book. I'm saving it for another that's not so overloaded. And after all that, I reread my first chapter and thought it sounded halfway decent. Like you, my writing insecurity meter is still pegged out, but editing for pay has given me a huge lift. Not much money, but still... it's the idea that I can do something well.
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