And all of a sudden, it’s Friday. I can’t believe how quick the week has been, and it’s not like it’s been a particularly busy week.
I got my number for the Great North Run in the post. I am number 37116, which means I’ll be starting waaay back in the pack in amongst the walkers. This does not bode well for a good time. My brother (who’s about 10,000 places ahead of me in the numbers) is also vexed over his allocated place and has suggested we see about getting ourselves bumped up the order a bit so that we can actually run the race.
On the writing front, I recently got some very good (and very severe in places) feedback on my work-in-progress. Notable issues were with the structure and voice, but neither of them is completely insurmountable and there was enough good feedback for me to feel like it’s actually worth keeping on with the project.
What I am doing, though, is pretty much re-writing the whole thing from scratch: moving from 1st person to 3rd, introducing a second POV, cutting large swathes of backstory and removing one character entirely. Also the biggest twist of the story is going to be delivered up front. I think it will be a lot easier second time round, although re-typing almost 100k worth of work with a change in viewpoint is going to be challenging in and of itself.
Since I really don’t want to have to do it a third time, I’ve been writing up a scene index and detailed synopsis so that when I do sit down to write it I’ll know exactly how what I have got fits into where I want to go with it, and if something doesn’t work I can alter it at the synopsis level without having to write it all out again first.
It’s great, because up until now my writing has existed in a bubble – I’ve had no direction as to where I’m going wrong or how to improve beyond the odd flash of insight from my own reading experience. It’s refreshing to have someone go “right – here’s where you’re strong, here’s what needs work” and I can only improve from it.
So, yeah. Back to work, I guess.
