Stats, giant plot changes and paranoia.
Feb. 1st, 2013 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dotsandlinesPlease excuse any crankiness today. I've spent all week worrying about getting stomach flu, which... makes my stomach hurt. Fitting, I suppose. Still, it's astronomically better than actually having the stuff. My last bout with that (circa age 9) was the worst one-time experience of my life, to the point where it represents, to me, a particular feeling of being entirely alone and unloved in the universe.
I'm a little neurotic. Next!
Words without notes: 139,065 (+8,648)
With notes: 146,324 (7,259 of notes, -1,755 since last time)
Pages: 278 (+12)
So here's what happened.
I'm not writing for an audience. I'm writing because it spreads joy into my life. I'm also writing out of order, because, well, I know what's going on. There are very wide swaths of empty space early in the chronology, because I worried about getting that part right, or something.
Even so, as an exercise, I sometimes consider a later part of the story and wonder "What would we need to make this comprehensible to an outside reader?" With that aim, I wrote a couple of new scenes, including a long key scene that turned out to be fun to write. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be! I will have to do this again.
Despite that, I'm now kind of questioning a plot point later in the story. It doesn't Ruin Everything; I could rewrite from that point on. Still, I have to chew over whether it would really improve the story, or if I'm just doubting my ability to carry it out believably, or if the original plot point doesn't make as much sense as I thought it did, or what-the-heck-ever.
I also love supporting characters who waltz in, do something awesome, and leave. My narrators should be the most interesting people in the story, yeah, but they aren't. I blame a lifetime of fandom. ;)
I'm a little neurotic. Next!
Words without notes: 139,065 (+8,648)
With notes: 146,324 (7,259 of notes, -1,755 since last time)
Pages: 278 (+12)
So here's what happened.
I'm not writing for an audience. I'm writing because it spreads joy into my life. I'm also writing out of order, because, well, I know what's going on. There are very wide swaths of empty space early in the chronology, because I worried about getting that part right, or something.
Even so, as an exercise, I sometimes consider a later part of the story and wonder "What would we need to make this comprehensible to an outside reader?" With that aim, I wrote a couple of new scenes, including a long key scene that turned out to be fun to write. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be! I will have to do this again.
Despite that, I'm now kind of questioning a plot point later in the story. It doesn't Ruin Everything; I could rewrite from that point on. Still, I have to chew over whether it would really improve the story, or if I'm just doubting my ability to carry it out believably, or if the original plot point doesn't make as much sense as I thought it did, or what-the-heck-ever.
I also love supporting characters who waltz in, do something awesome, and leave. My narrators should be the most interesting people in the story, yeah, but they aren't. I blame a lifetime of fandom. ;)
