So this weekend has been pretty darn good! Had friends over for dinner and a movie on Friday, then Saturday we just relaxed around the house, and today we got done a lot of the stuff we were supposed to get done! So hooray for productivity! We also took a walk down Marine drive, right along side the Columbia River. It was so lovely there, and surprisingly quiet for one of the nicest days we’ve had this spring. Saw the house boats on the river, and enjoyed the briny breeze coming off the water. Not quite sure why it smelled so salty, since I think it’s a freshwater river… I could be wrong, though–I don’t know much specifically about the river.
A good, relaxing weekend though, which I definitely needed.
Writing Stuff:
So the “UNTITLED NOVEL PROJECT” has taken on a little two-steps-forward, one-step-back kind of rhythm, which strangely is working for me. Progress is being made, even though I often go back and take out or rewrite sections. This weekend, in a tour de force, I rewrote the entire first two scenes and added the third. While the original two scenes I had from before were tolerable, these new ones capture the feel I was going for so. much. better. It’s more suave, more debonaire. It’s much more smooth in thought and word. I think the POV character for these scenes comes off much stronger now.
On the one-step-back side, I spent an hour or so hammering out 1,500+ words of the beginning of the second chapter, only to realize that I couldn’t use the POV from the first chapter. With that character as established as he is in those sections, there’s really nothing else to elaborate on once he meets my protagonist. What I need, I realized after writing it, is to now engage in the POV of my protagonist and let her carry this scene. It makes more practical sense anyway, since she’s the only character of the three who knows everyone by name (she knows the name of her captain and of her brother, whereas they are unfamiliar with each other). Plus, now that she’s been hinted at from one particular perspective, I’d like to see how she comes off when the reader gets into her own head. It should provide a second interpretation of the antagonist, also.
So we’ll just wait and see where that goes! But overall, I’m pleased with it. Liberally humoring myself whenever I feel like a section just doesn’t “do it” for me. As long as progress is being made, and as long as I’m happy with what I have, I’m going to do my best not to brood too much on it.
Maggie Slater 