In Which Our Heroine Loses Some Allies
Project Title: The Mistress of Frosthaven
Genre: YA – Dark Fantasy
Words Today: 1,628
Running Total: 57,467
Scrap Draft: (V1.0 = 31,142), V2.0 = 12,225
OH THE HOLES! THE HOLES! They’re starting to wear on me now, though at least I still managed to move forward today, and didn’t have too bad of a time too, given the three days away from it. But the holes in character motivation, the holes in character relationship development, the holes in background, and the holes in character complexity are starting to chaff a bit. I realize these are all things I can (and will have to) fix in Draft Two, but I hate that they’re there, hiding in the hills of words and snickering to themselves about how wretchedly deep they’re going to be entrenched by the time I get around to fixing them. *sigh* But I keep reminding myself that writing is rewriting, more often than not, and trying not to buy into the idea that if the story is written well in the first place, I wouldn’t have to change much of anything aside from details (which might be true for some writers, but very unlikely for me). And I’m also resisting the urge to simply scream BUT IT’S A SHALLOW WRECK WITH NO HOPE AND NO SOUL! because there are some parts I do like, and overall, I’m actually a little pleased that it’s still coming together despite its flaws. I can feel the organic momentum building towards End Act II, towards that fatalistic moment when THINGS MUST BE DONE, but it seems that EVERYTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. Still, I really, really hate that I’m not 100% inside the heads of my characters right now. They’re still true to form, still acting of their own volition, but I know I’m going to have to go back and clarify a lot and complicate a lot and ugh. But I simply repeat my mantra for this segment: I’M NOT GOING TO WORRY ABOUT IT FOR NOW. And move on.