Ow. I'm not talking about last night's bike ride, either. Chapter five is a long one. I'm not really complaining, I was only up a half hour later than usual. The chapter isn't even bad. It's just long. Even long may not be bad. A long chapter is more immersive. That's what I was aiming for in these first few chapters. I wanted to let the reader come in and make themselves comfortable. It's hard to get comfortable in five to seven pages (though that pace does work well for action chapters or to just speed up the flow of time).
Still, I'll be interested to see how my critique readers feel about it. I fear the worst.
I've been thinking about cutting, as I mentioned yesterday. I actually might be able to cut chapters 2 and 3 almost entirely. Nothing happens that would stop the story in it's tracks if they were gone. I could move some relevant details to elsewhere in the novel. But. If I do cut them entirely, I'm not giving my readers time to get accustomed to the world and I'm not letting them know the characters as well as they could. You'd miss Jael using her magic and borrowing Jacob's life force to do it. You'd miss meeting Jacob's mother, father and brothers. You'd miss seeing Jacob as is at the beginning of the novel and thus his change from boyhood to manhood might not seem dramatic enough.
So, for now, chapters 2 and 3 are safe but all of them are eligible for some deep pruning. You hear that chapters, you have been warned.
Still, I'll be interested to see how my critique readers feel about it. I fear the worst.
I've been thinking about cutting, as I mentioned yesterday. I actually might be able to cut chapters 2 and 3 almost entirely. Nothing happens that would stop the story in it's tracks if they were gone. I could move some relevant details to elsewhere in the novel. But. If I do cut them entirely, I'm not giving my readers time to get accustomed to the world and I'm not letting them know the characters as well as they could. You'd miss Jael using her magic and borrowing Jacob's life force to do it. You'd miss meeting Jacob's mother, father and brothers. You'd miss seeing Jacob as is at the beginning of the novel and thus his change from boyhood to manhood might not seem dramatic enough.
So, for now, chapters 2 and 3 are safe but all of them are eligible for some deep pruning. You hear that chapters, you have been warned.
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