Well, I sorted and re-arranged, and now the first half is more compelling. It’s going to require some careful editing, because the main male character now vanishes a full 25% earlier, putting the woman in a tight spot that she’s probably going to ignore progressively for the next 25%, until the midpoint and she has no choice.
It’s rough, though. After the rearrangement the main male character keeps popping up, is brutally edited out, his lines are given to someone else, but it still all disrupts the flow that was so carefully hung together. Or contrived.
It’s just in an ugly place right now, like a house in deep cleaning. Things are strewn about. I just need to keep plugging away at it.
2 responses to “Rewriting the Novel: Changes in the works.”
Yep, deep cleaning is like that! You had the skill to get the flow originally, you can re-establish it! (provided there isn’t anything actively un-flow-able, I mean. You can’t write a smooth haiku discussing seven topics, probably.)
KC – it is discouraging to have to un-scramble something that was working before. But it does mean I get to write new segues. I’m about a quarter done now. Not a lot of fun.