11.10.2004

Choppy waters

Well, I reached quota yesterday, but because of procrastinating, I didn't get it done till 1 am. On the positive side, my speed was increased. I got 2000 words done in 3.5 hours instead of 4 like the night before. I hope that's a trend, especially considering what I was writing wasn't fast work.
What is fast work when writing a novel you ask? (Ok, you didn't ask, but I'm going to tell you anyway.) A fight scene is fast - it's descriptive, plus I have the whole scene in my head. I know where it begins and ends and in between kind of takes care of itself. Exposition can be fast if it's something I've been thinking over for a while. Transitions are slow. You can't ignore them and just say, "three weeks later," unless you've established a pattern of life for your character that the reader can insert in the blank. It has to be interesting enough that your reader won't put the book down, but not interesting enough that it distracts from the main plot. It needs to be filled out just enough that the reader gets the idea, and it needs to be concise. Transitions are hard.
Yesterday was a day of transition for my main character. Today there should be some big action going on.
And hopefully I'll be able to get to be earlier!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, since you didn't actually say it, I won't actually post the laugh track. (Which, if I were to post it would sound like this... "yuk yuk yuk".)
And you would have been the first to say it, though not the first to think it. (I have already been thinking it.)
Good luck on your crisis writing!