We're going to be in Italy for Canadian Thanksgiving, so we're having it...today! Yep, the turkey's going in the oven, I've made the cranberry sauce (recipe will be posted here while I'm gone), and I'm heading off to buy a pumpkin pie. I'm also working on my sixth draft of my book that's due Friday. I thought I'd be done with the fifth draft, then discovered it was too short. By 7,000 words.
So what do I do? Well, I go through the manuscript again, looking for places where I can add new material. There's always several places. For one thing, I tend to write very lean and neglect description, so that's a place to start. Sometimes I find a place for a whole new scene; not in this case, but there's a very obvious place near the end to expand a scene.
Does this mean I don't cut anything from the next draft? Nope. If it doesn't fit or feel right, it's going out - because I can always find places to add. And so far, after seven chapters, I've added 2,000 words.
And let me just add - what the heck is up with Chapter Twelve? I swear that chapter, or the next one, ALWAYS needs more work than almost any part of the book except the first page. Which I've revised about oh, say, fifty times. That's par for the course, though.
Now, to work with me!
4 comments:
You revise your 1st page 50 times!!?? Now that is dedication. Have a great holiday. Take care. Caroline x
Yep. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the opening. Sometimes it's right there - boom! - and other times...not so much. This was the latter, I'm afraid.
I'll be ready for my holiday, which should be interesting, if not restful!
Hi. Happy early Thanksgiving. If I tried to write a book, it would wind up about 70,000 words too short. Actually, I never thought I'd see the day, but I had to quit reading a book because of too many words. Somehow, they just didn't flow, which was a shame, because the book sounded great from the back cover. As it was the first book of a trilogy, I also didn't read the other two.
I tried another author, and decided I just plain didn't like her writing. She seems to be very popular, but not for me. She did however mention something that you, writing in the same time period, never have that I know of. In her story, the marriage portions by law had to be of equal value. The hero gave up one of his castles to bring his value down to the heroine's. I was just wondering if this was the law, or something she made up? She was writing about the reign of King John.
Rosemary
Rosemary - I haven't heard of any such law, but that doesn't mean it didn't exist. I'd have to look it up to be sure. I once discovered a legal issue that meant the set-up to my series was not viable (prior to 1205, brothers from one family couldn't marry sisters from another, as the marriage of the fist couple would render the families tied by blood, as if they were all one big family)- after the first book was in publication. Made for some interesting scrambling to make it work. I did, but oh, baby, I was in shock for a while! I discovered this only by accident, too, as I was *quite sure* it would okay for such a marriage to take place - and so it was, but AFTER the time of my story.
Basically, what I'm saying is, she could be right, although I've never heard of or encountered that in my research.
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