09 November, 2011

The Last Third

The first two thirds of the novel had been written and rewritten a couple of times. As a result, they were much more polished, and made much more sense; better story structure, character development, better thought-out elements.

I just got back into the last third of the novel, which has all had exactly one pass. I keep finding entire chapters that don't really make sense because they weren't predicated on a rigorous analysis of what the characters would do, how they would react, etc. And also a lot of them were light on conflict. Things happen, but there was little danger, little conflict, a lot of users going from point A to point B.

On the one hand, it's painful to have to commit to the idea of throwing out three or four entire chapters because they don't make sense. On the other hand, it's a good feeling knowing that you're making something much better than before.

The end is in sight, but only if I use a telescope.