I did a brief copy-edit of chapter 2 of Angel Odyssey and posted it up for critique. It's the first chapter from Jael's POV and I'm not as happy with it as I'd like. I'm going to need to mull over what I don't like about it but part of it is that it feels too 'talky'. There is one long paragraph of exposition that's delivered by Jael as a sort of 'take that' to Jacob's mother. I don't think it fits. I'll probably need to re-write it from scratch. In fact, that's exactly what I should do in my voluminous spare time. I should re-write it several times, trying for different moods and keep the one that clicks. Sigh. But I think I'll wait until I get my critiques back, I'm sure they will be far less complimentary this time.
I finished the 'beginnings' portion of Nancy Kress's 'Beginnings, Middles and Ends'. Still a great read. She makes a number of good points about not only your/my first scene but also the second. Naturally that pricked my ears up, considering the difficulties I'm feeling with Jael's first POV scene. I wish I had the book in front of me now, it's quite quotable. Basically, she said the second scene can: backfill and tell the story of what led to the first scene or it can move the story forward (or a third thing which I'm blanking on. It's early for me, still.) I tend to want to keep the plot going forward. Forward Momentum!
I'm going to be continuing my first revision this month. Again, starting with a copy-edit pass first and then going back and fiddling with what doesn't work.
I'll keep you posted on how it's going.
I finished the 'beginnings' portion of Nancy Kress's 'Beginnings, Middles and Ends'. Still a great read. She makes a number of good points about not only your/my first scene but also the second. Naturally that pricked my ears up, considering the difficulties I'm feeling with Jael's first POV scene. I wish I had the book in front of me now, it's quite quotable. Basically, she said the second scene can: backfill and tell the story of what led to the first scene or it can move the story forward (or a third thing which I'm blanking on. It's early for me, still.) I tend to want to keep the plot going forward. Forward Momentum!
I'm going to be continuing my first revision this month. Again, starting with a copy-edit pass first and then going back and fiddling with what doesn't work.
I'll keep you posted on how it's going.
RSS Feed