I was ill yesterday as you probably saw from my post, and i managed to write 3000 words of complete and total rubbish. I'm not sure how I did it, reading back i can see all the key things i wanted to be in the scene are all missing. The events are right but the ideas, thoughts and feelings i wanted to convey in the scene are not there. So i decided that rather than continue with the next chapter and edit at the end of the novel I would rip the chapter apart now and fix it. I could have waited but i just didn't feel right continuing until everything was put the way it should have been. I also thought i would be more difficult to continue with the following chapter until the previous one was corrected.
In my editing some of the chapter just went completely but on the other hand i also added a great deal. As it stands i am halfway through the chapter's editing and the word count has jumped up to 4000 words. Increasing the word count and knowing that i will be increasing it even further in the second half of the chapter has made me think about splitting my one chapter into two, however, I don't know whether it will be worth doing until i have finished tidying the second half of the chapter.
One of my favourite mistakes known as nanoism in the NANO world was my opening line for the chapter - we were married 6 months later in the spring. I then spent the next 2000 words describing how she was about to get married and the ceremony and the clothes and wedding night. What was the point in saying they were married and then going back and telling the story of the wedding. It didn't work and defeated the object of the first line. so i got rid of it and got a slightly better line which im much happier with.
I've still got a lot to do on this chapter and can hopefully fix the rest tonight but i have learnt a valuable lesson. Im glad i wrote yesterday because I proved I can write when im ill, unfortunately i cannot write anything coherent but I can work on that, and by spending time on the chapter when i was ill i still managed to churn the words out and create something that i could work with. I also learnt that i shouldn't be afraid to do major editing at the end of a chapter if something doesn't work it doesn't work and isn't it better to fix it when your in the mindset then come back and do some major changes when your not? Thats up for deliberation but if anyone wants to comment then please speak now or forever hold your peace...
(nb im sorry i've just written a whole chapter on marriage including the words of the ceremony itself and i couldn't resist.)
Glad to hear you're feeling a bit better. I've not tried writing when I'm ill since high school... It was quite a successful experiment then, but I'm pretty sure the success was a fluke.
ReplyDeleteI love weddings - I can imagine writing about them is a lot of fun!
Hi Claire,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, I'm much better now.
Writing the wedding chapters were good fun and i really enjoyed doing the research and reading about various marriages in the 18th Century.
If you love weddings there will be at least one more, but the next one is going to be very different.
Thanks again