Bloodhound is now 57,000 words long. My writing has slowed as I have to work out plot points so that they're going to tie together and actually make sense at the end, but I'm still going pretty fast. I have the next few scenes plotted out and should have managed to write them today.
But I'm stuck in a section where the main character has to travel to several places in a very short time, and while in those places she has to visit different rooms and talk to different people about different things. In other words, I feel like I've been writing nothing but transitions for the last thousand words!
I think transitions are one of the hardest things to get right. Mess them up and the writing is clumsy, slow, and unconvincing. Get them right and no one notices. Every time a character moves to a new location or changes the subject during a conversation, or the action has to change in some way, it's yet another transition. For all the effort I'm putting into this section of Bloodhound, I'm going to have to revise the hell out of it to make it read smoothly in the final draft. But I have to finish writing it first.
8 comments:
I prefer to get the story down quickly and then go back and spend the extra time editing...and editing...and editing. I sometimes envy people who write a very slow, near perfect first draft (I do actually know someone who does this).
I like to get a story down quickly too, but I still agonize over some parts of the rough draft. I figure the more work I put into the rough draft, the easier the edits will be. Sometimes I'm right, but not always. :)
I can't leave the loose ends -- I have to fix before I can move on. it does get clunky otherwise so agonize is the perfect word.
And yes, I'm a Nano disgrace.
Ack. Transitions. I'm struggling with that in the first draft of my latest Sons of Chaos novella. There will be edits!
Anne--I'm not one of those authors who can write 'fix this later' and move on to the next scene. I wish I were; it sounds so easy.
Aaron--Edits are as inevitable as death and taxes. Fortunately, there's also chocolate and bourbon.
You're working so hard (and writing furiously). Note to self: Take a leaf out of Kate's book, but don't rip any pages from Jack ;
Weridly the verification word is an actual word: layer
I hate transitions : P They drive me crazy.
Cate--But I'm not writing any short fiction. I need to!
Natalie--Oh, me too.
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