Leigh Royals |

So. I decided that it is imperative for my current WIP be entered into a contest. (I haven’t paid yet, but I will) With that motivation behind me, pushing me, I realized that the required first chapter or first 25 pages is NOT ready. For a week I’ve been hemming and hawing about it. I procrastinated enough. But I did make a painful decision. I decided that I had to cut out the debris. Let loose the detritus that was my superflous prose. It was all info dump. What is that, you say? Well, it was mostly information that I had thought was pertinent to the story. But it was all back story told as it happened. It didn’t move the story forward. In fact, it backpedalled. So, somehow, I will have to craft the most important threads of that forsaken 30-50 pages (I know! A lot!) into the forward momentum of the rest of the story. If I do it right, I can sprinkle some here and there and reveal bits of character for the H/h as I go. That would go so much farther in connecting with them, instead of me telling you how to get there.

And speaking of telling. I have GOT to stop doing that. Bad writer, Bad, bad. I know to use my senses. And I’m improving, but, still a lot of polishing to do. I decided at my halfway word count goal (151 pages so far out of a hopeful 300, at least) to start editing now. Because if I go on without editing, that might mean massive, and I mean ginormous rewrites. My tired little brain can’t wrap around that. I’d feel much better if I got things honed now and moved forward from there.

I even devised a clever little scheme. In the work in total so far I color coded the segments in pink for her, purple for him and brown for other scenes. After I did that I reordered some of them and didn’t color code what I haven’t transfered yet. What I have is started the book in a different spot, much later than I had earlier. This way, you drop right in the middle of ACTION baby, instead of waiting for it to happen. I know this is a smart move. Besides, all of the flotsam and jetsam is political or inconsequential. Further proof that it will NOT move the story.

I just hope that despite the fact that the H/h do not meet within those first 27 pages isn’t going to hurt my chances. At least they’re both introduced to the reader… We’ll see. I’m awaiting feedback from my good buddies. Come on people, pretty please and thank you, I have a deadline.

Tags: editing, flotsam, jetsam, Leigh Royals, writing