Re-drafting and Re-writing

Hey hey, time for another fill in.

I was updating last Monday, but my lovely internet connection thought I had a nice enough sense of humour to see the funny side of it losing connection just as I was publishing the post. Of course, it thought wrong, for I had just wasted an hour typing up something that was never going to be read by my friends. Internet connection…you slag.

Anyways, I will update on what’s been going on in the re-drafting department over the last few days. I sent the first 6 chapters to three of my friends on Sunday, since they all kindly volunteered. My friend Janet gave me the quickest response, sending me my drafts on Monday morning. I brushed up the grammar and put in a little tweaks on the last five chapters, where Janet highlighted the faults. But it was the Prologue that needed the most help, as she was a little confused as to what the characters looked like, imagining alien creatures, rather than the human forms they are.

Three years of being taught to be economical in the description parts looks like it has had a negative effect. I am not saying you must never do this. It’s always preferential that the author describes one or two features that best show the character’s personality. But only in a novel that is set in the real world. In fantasy, when you have two different races that are not human, it is vital that you describe what they look like, or at least tell the reader if they are human-looking at all; otherwise you will think what Janet thought when she read my opening chapters.

Yesterday and today, I spent my free time extending one of the chapters to the point that it had to be split into two chapters. I realised that the story didn’t flow every well in the chapter and the large surprises came too suddenly and therefore, came across as vague. So I had to do an awful lot of extending and to be honest, I really enjoyed it. On Tuesday, I spent four to five hours typing incessantly and it felt like the narrative was naturally flowing out of me like bog roll. Unfortunately, such hard work comes at a price and I ended up suffering from a bit of a headache.

I did not bother with Paracetomel, I only take them when I really need to (i.e. horrid period pains that make you feel like crap all day). So I decided it was best to sleep off the pain and surely enough, I was feeling fine by the next morning. I have just finished extending the other chapter and brushing up on the two that follow. I will have to spend my free day tomorrow looking through the chapter and thinking about ways in which to make it exciting.