Restructuring

It’s not enough to write the correct words. Not enough to be pithy and clever. Not enough to tell a good story in a good order with characters that pop off the page. You also have to build drama and suspense. Sometimes that means you have to rearrange what you’ve already gotten comfortable with.

The process goes like this.

First, as you read a passage, you decide it’s blah. In fact, it’s boring the hell out of you. So you spend a week checking tha the scene really needs to be in there, and its written the right way.

Second, you check all the chapters around it to see if they’re the problem. Take another week doing that.

Third, you realize it’s just plain boring. You need some punch. You take a couple weeks procrastinating because, well, if you add punch now, something has to change in the other chapters. No way to avoid the ripple effect.

Fourth, you wipe your tears, sit right down, and make the necessary changes. It takes, maybe, 25 minutes. 25 painful minutes that leave you shaking your head at how it took 4 weeks to work up to.

That’s where I’ve just come from. Birthright is back on track.