Jun 19 2009
a rambling, overtired novel status update
So I haven’t updated you on the novel in a while mainly because I haven’t had time to work on it in ages. Tonight I decided sleep be damned and finished my work early so I could work on my novel.
Let me tell you, the last few weeks have been awful. First, I got sick for 2 full weeks and then addicted to Afrin so I couldn’t breathe (that is totally a real thing and scary as hell, let me tell you). Then my work totally changed over their system overnight so I had to learn a whole new system which made even the simplest of tasks take way too long. The very next day, the eBay listing service we used went from free to hellah expensive so I had to find a new listing service, learn a new listing service and move all our listings over to said new listing service. Then, though I am not going to the MLP Fair, I had to help get stuff together for it and this is all on top of The Author coming out and several other huge projects I was in the middle of at work before things happened to create more work.
Ugh, I say. Life was kicking my butt already the last few weeks and then all the rain pretty much washed away what will I had to live left.
But I actually became zen about the rain the last few days and feel mostly on top of all the aforementioned crisis so, yeah, feeling better about life. Takin a licken and keeping on with the tickin!
Anyway so, about the long unfinished novel. I have told myself that I am going to finish it before November no matter what because I need to start something new and NaNoWriMo is as good deadline to set as any so that is what we are working on.
I guess I am technically smoothing out or editing my novel. Basically I am going through with a fine tooth comb and doing things like, “Wait how did I describe this 3 chapters ago?” and “Hmm, with Chapter 4 and 7 side by side, I don’t think this character’s voice is consistent.” Annoying as heck, mostly. I remember reading about a person who worked on Lion King whose sole job was to make sure Timon had the same # of stripes on his back in every scene. That is basically the stage of novel writing that I am up to.
There are two problems I am running into. The first is time. This is two-fold because, firstly, I rarely have time to work on it what with all the chaos. Secondly, usually so much time has passed since I last worked on it, it takes a while for me to remember where I was. Annoying.
The second problem is way too many drafts. I think I have complained about this before but the biggest problem for me is keeping track of which is the current version. It is no exaggeration that I have dozens of versions of each chapter. I don’t like to delete old drafts because I take parts out and put them back in all the time but it is very confusing. Then sometimes I mis-numbered a chapter in the first place so it’s like, where the heck does this go? Then every chapter after that is no longer numbered correctly and so on. In particular, this section I am working on now is a mess. I have complained about the many Chapter 10′s I have but I am proud to say that I have finally defeated Chapter 10.
However, the next few chapters are all dealing with the same event and can be separated or combined as needed. They are also all totally misnumbered. I am dreading dealing with this section. Today I firmed up Chapter 11 in addition to 10 but there is another half of 10 I could make 12 or jam onto the end of 10. Also, there is a chapter called 12 that may become chapter 13. I already have 2, completely different Chapter 13s so this is going to be a mess.
The issue is that the first few chapters before this point go, Character A, Character B, Character C and so on in the pattern. Come chapter 12ish, all the characters meet which makes everything a much bigger mess of exposition and such.
Ugh. I think I am too tired to even explain where I am with the book right now. Just know this: Chapters 10 and 11 are good. Chapters 12 and 13 are up next and are going to SUCK.
But progress is progress, my friends and progresso is soup.
OK. I’m going to bed.
Hillary is an award winning playwright, fiction and non-fiction author best known for her play, The Love of Three Oranges which has been performed around the world. A Script Frenzy and NaNoWriMo ML, she loves connecting with other writers no matter what their experience levels. For the business side of blogging, publishing and selling, visit Hillary at The Whine Seller. See a complete list of Hillary’s blogs and books here.
