This is not going to be much more than a collection of some thoughts about the writing happening today. I’m struggling with revision, so let me point out how and why…
Some Thoughts:
- Had a conversation with the Lady Talis the other day about doing too much with this novel, and had another this morning about trying to recognize how to simplify that and move the story unerringly towards the inevitable conclusion. I am clearly in that stage of the story now, but it feels like the story is starting over. I don’t know how to reconcile the reset. I don’t know how to move forward with the story in a way that makes sense but hits the points I am trying, stubbornly, to cover. It sounds like I am going to need to murder more darlings.
- The way I got there, the way I got to the conversation, was by trying to tell myself the story in summary in bed this morning. When I got to where the revision ends (and the present work begins) I was stuck. The idea I’d originally come up with didn’t resonate in the summarized telling. So now I am trying to lock in on logic and create a way to get us to the end–or find a new ending based on where we are now.
- It all boils down to a hidden truth… a bit of knowledge that has to be revealed in order to force the conclusion. The other aspect is with a specific character arc that I need to decide to either loop back in or abandon. I wanted to keep it, but I don’t know that it makes sense. That moment is what is killing the entire forward momentum. At this point the characters are being forced into actions by me in order to create a moment that is unnatural and does not need to happen in order to move the story to conclusion.