Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Sometimes Less is Less...and more better

Y'know, like most writers...I can fall in love with my words.  But going through this restructuring of LD has shown me that sometimes that love is misplaced.  Not because the words are bad, but because they get in the way of the truth of the moment.  Like the ending bit, where I've got ten different people talking at one time.  It sort of worked in screenplay form because they'd be talking over each other and what they said wasn't really important.  But I tried to keep that in the book...and it's just plain confusing.

And what's even worse -- it kills the build of the tension.  So, I cut half of it out.  Then added some back in and took out other bits and layered in even more detail and rearranged that whole moment between Daniel and Ace and now I think it leads into the finale a lot better.  I hope.

I don't remember having this much trouble when writing HTRASG, RIHC6 or PM, all of which are convoluted storylines.  I did, however, have trouble with BC, mainly because I couldn't figure out the actual structure and because I was pushing too much into one book.  The positive aspect of that story was, by breaking it into thirds I was able to let it do its own thing and build a story about people instead of plots. I think.  I've heard from a couple of people who've read it and they seem to like it.

But LD is kicking me in the ass.  And some of it's been painful.  I started working on the last third because Ace's voice sort of vanishes, there, but now it's become more a case of maintaining Daniel's reality (or lack thereof) and still keeping the flow going.

Man...if I'm going through this much shit for a fun little story like this, what kind of hell am I aiming for with POS?  I will DEFINITELY need some comedy in that one, just to keep myself sane.

At least, as sane as I sort-of, kind-of am now.  I think.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Stephen King said to, "Kill your Darlings."

All those cute, clevers added along the way.