The basic issue is that whatever we spend a lot of words on leads the reader to believe that this item or person is important. If you've plotted first, you will plan to do this for your main characters and items, but in the course of actual writing sometimes things of no significance at all somehow leap off the page, and when it turns out to serve no purpose, makes the reader feel cheated.

Not good.

So I am four chapters into discovering all the places I didn't mean to 'lead the reader on', and filling in worksheets accordingly. Happily, having worked from good plot cards, I'm not coming across too many over-described bits, but it's still time consuming. It's so interesting to go over the whole thing with a fine comb again though, and pay attention to these kinds of details.

So I'm not terribly far along, but the process is under way. I hope to get a lot more done this weekend on my LOOONG bus ride, at least once we hit the prairies and it's a smoother ride.

Related:

1. Getting To Know All About You Filling in Character inform­a­tion in the research sec­tion of Scrivener. Came up with another inter­est­ing con­nec­tion...
2. In Preparation of Progress This week I was able to read through my 2nd les­son and the demo that came...

So, I've been lurking around the How To Revise Your Novel forum and hearing how others are dealing with the worksheets, which is so encouraging.  I'm going to read the lesson again a few times, and plan to begin the process on Monday.

I'm looking forward to more consistent progress, and planning to make it happen come March.

Related:

1. Ah, progress! So this Saturday is turn­ing out like I’d inten­ded the last one to. I’ve made it...
2. Promises, promises… …is the title of les­son two in How To Revise Your Novel, and it’s so...
3. Making something good even better I made good head­way in under­stand­ing the method to be used as I begin my big...

The good news is there are still lots of things that I love, and hopefully that will encompass all of the book by the end of this course.

And of course I always get a thrill just from watching the progress widget advance.

Related:

1. Making something good even better I made good head­way in under­stand­ing the method to be used as I begin my big...
2. Ah, progress! So this Saturday is turn­ing out like I’d inten­ded the last one to. I’ve made it...
3. Another Beginning This novel is fol­low­ing the ‘Three Act Structure’ com­monly used. The first quarter of the book...

I'm close to half way done, hoping to accomplish more this evening.  It will be nice to show some progress on the progress bar.

Related:

1. In Preparation of Progress This week I was able to read through my 2nd les­son and the demo that came...

I'm excited.  More than a little, in fact.  I love to see progress happen.  I love seeing something good and making it even better.  There's such satisfaction in that.  It's what I love about directing theatre, and what makes me want to grow as a writer.

Related:

1. In Preparation of Progress This week I was able to read through my 2nd les­son and the demo that came...
2. Decisions, Decisions I’m get­ting to a new meaty part, the second begin­ning almost con­cluded. There’s a lot of high action...
3. One down! Woot! Well, it was fairly gruel­ing but cer­tainly edu­ca­tional to do a first crit­ical read-​through of my...

I’m missing writing, but still have much to do in my theatre director hat. So many passions, so little time. Or more significantly in my case, so little energy. I carefully horde and ration it out.

Tomorrow will be my last catch-up cleaning day. The biggest stuff is nearly done, the smaller things can progress in smaller increments, leaving me resources for the writing part of my heart’s work.

No related posts.

Well, between Nanowrimo and other generally chaotic life happpening, my poor house has been woefully neglected for quite some time.  A dear writer friend, Vivian Arend, helped me establish some order on Friday and it motivated me to get the rest of it dealt with too.

It's hard to write with a guilty conscience, and mounds of laundry can achieve an accusatory look seldom realised by inanimate objects.  So while I'm not directly progressing in my writing adventure, I'm setting things up to make it easier in the very near future.  Perhaps I should set the bean counter to show the progress in my home instead!

Friday: Two rooms in order

Saturday: One room in order

Sunday: Two rooms in order, plus Christmas decorations away

Not bad, and the rest can reasonably be expected to be done by the end of the week, hopefully including re-creating my office/writing space.

Onwards!

Related:

1. Ah, progress! So this Saturday is turn­ing out like I’d inten­ded the last one to. I’ve made it...

Looking forward to Saturday!

Related:

1. I’m Baaack! After a much needed hiatus dur­ing December, I’ve begun my new Holly Lisle course, “How To...
2. In Preparation of Progress This week I was able to read through my 2nd les­son and the demo that came...

I’ve also written a memoir-type article on the effect of summer camp in my life, which I’m considering submitting to a few places. With my family and other non-writing commitments, we’ll see how far I get with that process in the next few weeks.

Onward and upward!

No related posts.

Just kidding.  But today I completed my 50 000 words for Nanowrimo this year, and a few hundred words after that I finished the actual story, very rough first draft.

Phew!

I am hoping to get in on Holly Lisle's new class, How To Revise Your Novel (which this one will surely need) right away, but if the class fills too soon, I think I'll be content to go back to learning more plot techniques and other goodies from my still unfinished courses.  Yes, I am a quick start and I'll leave one thing for another that's shinier, only to return to the first thing at a different time.  Keeps life interesting, and it's all the more reason to be proud that I kept the pace up for the whole month of November.

Go me!

Related:

1. Rolling Along I seem to be rolling along rack­ing up the Nano-​numbers fairly smoothly. Today I did nearly double...
2. All Set and Ready To Go I’m get­ting so excited to start writ­ing on Sunday! Today I fin­ished enter­ing all my ‘organic’...
3. Weekly Tweets for 2009-​11-​01 New: : Scrivener http://b.jeanneboyko.com/2009/scrivener/ # @Brandilyn http://​pic​.gd/​2​2​a​132 Wow, that’s got to be inspir­ing! #...