I've been smashing my head against the wall of OT for too long; it's time for the book to be finished. So from now on, I'm not rewriting anything except to correct typos or inconsistencies. I've fallen into my old trap of reworking the story down to the point where I'm changing a single word on a page...then the next day changing it back. That's not writing; that's psychosis.
So I'm giving myself till the end of the month to finish this draft and send it out for a second beta-read. It's almost like a new book, as compared to the original draft I sent...and copyrighted. Almost. The same basic structure is there, as are the vast majority of characters and events. I just dropped the lecturing, which I'm sure no one will miss, and made Jake's search for his uncle more important to him.
I had one beta-reader dismiss the "disappearing uncle" bit as meaningless. "People disappear all the time," he said. And he's right about that...but that's beside the point. Jake goes looking for his uncle because the man backed him up when he was outed and kicked out of his home and went to jail. Owen means something to Jake, and my lead's not the kind of guy who will just shrug important things off.
Another reader noted that Jake makes some easy connections between things, and she was right. So I'm trying to make his knowledge and awareness and realizations grow organically from the situation and his research. He's got Tone and Matt to back him up and gather info for him to process; he doesn't need to be brilliant.
Nor do I, really...which is hard for me to accept...
So I'm giving myself till the end of the month to finish this draft and send it out for a second beta-read. It's almost like a new book, as compared to the original draft I sent...and copyrighted. Almost. The same basic structure is there, as are the vast majority of characters and events. I just dropped the lecturing, which I'm sure no one will miss, and made Jake's search for his uncle more important to him.
I had one beta-reader dismiss the "disappearing uncle" bit as meaningless. "People disappear all the time," he said. And he's right about that...but that's beside the point. Jake goes looking for his uncle because the man backed him up when he was outed and kicked out of his home and went to jail. Owen means something to Jake, and my lead's not the kind of guy who will just shrug important things off.
Another reader noted that Jake makes some easy connections between things, and she was right. So I'm trying to make his knowledge and awareness and realizations grow organically from the situation and his research. He's got Tone and Matt to back him up and gather info for him to process; he doesn't need to be brilliant.
Nor do I, really...which is hard for me to accept...
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