Well, yesterday I finished Act 1–a very very rough draft. From what I reviewed last week, I am fairly happy with about 50% of what’s there. But there are gaping holes, lots of bracketed notes for changing a description here, fill in a bit of dialogue here, a reaction there. A lot of it is flat, and it’s clear that I don’t I tell you it is HARD for me not to go back and start to fiddle and fix and revise. Because that’s what I’ve always done. I always pantsed my way through things, and whenever I got stuck in what happened next, I polished what I already had. Which meant that I usually had a fairly solid (at least in terms of language and voice) beginning. So it’s really really hard to leave this rocky beginning.
But as Pot so wisely just told me “Sometimes you have to make a good stock before you make soup.”
So onward.
I started a new blog just for characters. I’ve made character blogs before–individual ones for each character, but it was a waste of a username because I didn’t have to KEEP blogging. So I made Character Cogitations and can change each post to be whatever character I need. I started with Conall last night to try and get into his head for the scene I’m working on now. I don’t know that it would interest anyone but me.
It’s staff appreciation day here at the university, so I need to crank out some actual work before we leave for campus in a couple hours. Have a happy Friday!
Actually, I quite like the idea of a character blog and will be sure to check yours out.
Congrats on finishing ACT I!
Thanks! I’m pleased to have gotten this far (despite gaping holes). I just tried the character blogging thing the other day and it actually worked out really well getting me in the right headspace for my hero. So I think I’ll keep it up.