It has been a good week in my little writing world. After thinking over what is left to do on this novel, I decided to do something that may seem counter-intuitive: I went back to the beginning. Having spent the past several months picking scenes apart and putting pieces of them in one new spot and then another, I realized that I didn’t have a strong sense of the story’s overall flow, and my characters’ voices were blurring. Given that the entire story takes place over three weeks and involves the characters being chased a lot, I really want a sense of momentum going into the endgame.
So back to chapter 1 I went, smoothing transitions and fixing bits of continuity that escaped me on the previous pass, trimming here and filling out there. I got through 11 chapters in the course of the week, with 90 pages of draft still to edit before I run out of paved road. I feel much more grounded in the narrative than I did a week ago. I have a five-day weekend coming up due to school vacation, and I’m hoping to keep this up and push on through to the final bits of work.
Enjoy your weekend!
R Jean Stevenson 