Long chapters...

I'm at a loss as to how long I want the chapters to be. I just finished one in APoS that's 41 pages and rambles a bit about Brendan and his mates, and how they got to calling each other China, as a sort of joke. Colm has a copy of Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy and it leads to that. I think I want to break it in half, but I don't see a natural break point. So maybe it needs to be this long. I don't know. When I'm not sure, I prefer to let it be.

It might also be I should cut back some on the chit-chat between the boys, but I like the flow of it. To me, it's important the story fall naturally and seem real...well, as real as possible. Going through Book One, again, is showing me much of it's really in line with what I want it to be. Just some minor changes here and there. Consistencies maintained. That sort of thing.

Brendan's stand-offish but winds up being dragged into friendship with Colm, Danny, Paidrig and Wee Eammon (not his brother) because he automatically understands football (soccer) strategy based on movement and its natural progression. His brother, Eamonn, also pushes him to join with them and they help loosen him up. So having them chat around a fire as they dry off from being caught in a rain makes sense to me. Shows how natural they are with each other.

I did remove some more repetition. I once read somewhere that you should say something three times in a story for it to stick...though it may have been in reference to writing a screenplay. Anyway, that's not what I want in the book. If people remember a reference I make to something that happened earlier, great. If not, oh, well.

It still bounces around a bit in Brendan's telling, but it's his way. One thought leads to another and another, like in most people, and it's being written as if he's telling it, verbally. I like that style.