Last night was IM gaming night, when the internet wanted to stay one. But I have gotten a smidge more editing done on Angel Odyssey. I’m shuffling chapters so to keep with my structure of alternating POV chapters (and I’m kicking myself for doing that to myself), I’m having to rewrite one of the pivotal scenes in the book. This time, we see it from Jael’s POV.
It’s annoying to have to do the work but it’s also interesting. If I had infinite time, I’d love to write the novel again, and flip the POVs in each chapter. Jael and Jacob look at the world so differently. When I wrote it from Jacob’s POV, it had a feel of determination and anger. From Jael’s POV, there’s a feeling of helplessness, frustration and the need to hide both from every outside view.
It’s funny, I never had a problem with POV until I started studying it. I don’t think I broke or drifted POV once in the first two novels I wrote. But after studying it in “Character and Viewpoint” and other books on writing, I find myself hyper-aware of it. As a result, mistakes creep in. Sort of like how you never ask a centipede how it walks without tripping itself or make Warner Brothers toon look down when they’re running on air. I think sometimes you can over-think writing. If you read enough, I think osmosis will steer you better than planning and structure will. Planning and structure have their place but it’s before and after you write. When writing, you need to be pure. Just let things flow from your ID, your muse, your right side of the brain…whatever you want to call it.
Of course, that’s just me. Every writer needs to find their own way. My way, tonight, is to put my hinder in the Throne of Writing(tm) and edit. Some teeth grinding may be involved.
It’s annoying to have to do the work but it’s also interesting. If I had infinite time, I’d love to write the novel again, and flip the POVs in each chapter. Jael and Jacob look at the world so differently. When I wrote it from Jacob’s POV, it had a feel of determination and anger. From Jael’s POV, there’s a feeling of helplessness, frustration and the need to hide both from every outside view.
It’s funny, I never had a problem with POV until I started studying it. I don’t think I broke or drifted POV once in the first two novels I wrote. But after studying it in “Character and Viewpoint” and other books on writing, I find myself hyper-aware of it. As a result, mistakes creep in. Sort of like how you never ask a centipede how it walks without tripping itself or make Warner Brothers toon look down when they’re running on air. I think sometimes you can over-think writing. If you read enough, I think osmosis will steer you better than planning and structure will. Planning and structure have their place but it’s before and after you write. When writing, you need to be pure. Just let things flow from your ID, your muse, your right side of the brain…whatever you want to call it.
Of course, that’s just me. Every writer needs to find their own way. My way, tonight, is to put my hinder in the Throne of Writing(tm) and edit. Some teeth grinding may be involved.
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