The first book is up and running; the second is with the genre editor (the final stage after several re-writes, sense checks, spelling checks, and going through the non-genre editor). So I thought I’d give the third book a final run through before pushing it over to the non-genre editor.
So the first thing is tidying up the middle section, which deals with a lot of plot. Fine and dandy except something strikes me about the plot. Hmm…maybe I need to backtrack a bit and rewrite the whole approach to one of the early characters.
Then, yesterday, it strikes me that really, I shouldn’t introduce a character in the last section of the book, out of the blue. Besides, it’s partly a crime novel, so I have to give the reader the chance to guess at most of the plot. Hmmph. OK, I can do that. And the character wants more involvement. As ever, when you start writing more around a character, the character starts suggesting stuff. More backtracking.
While I’m still in the middle of that, this morning another part of the plot shouts out to be treated in a different way. Then, while I’ve gone yet further back, I realise that this whole thing about the interaction of time between fairyland and Midearth needs fine tuning concerning how people get into Elfhame and what the rules are.
Ach, damn. I’m now involved in a major re-write. Nothing wrong with the book, it’s just it needs locking everything together in just the right way. And that will mean resorting to a spreadsheet to keep track of who knows what, when; avoiding duplication of information; building the clues in just the right way; ensuring consistency in the way the magic works, and keeping all that in pace with the internal timing in the book.
Ho hum. That’s the next few weeks blown.
4 Comments
You will have to excuse me a giggle here at this point. It’s not at you, I promise, but the whole thing when writing fantasy of having to be even more of a stickler for the rules than if you were writing about so called real life. I think people assume that if you are writing something about a world or worlds you have made up then its some lovely wandering freeform thing. Painfully wrong
I’m sure the rewriting will go fine as long as you caution your characters that there is only so much leeway for them to suggest extras before the author starts chewing lumps out of her desk
heh. Quite. We all know the rules of life – or think we do.
In a fantasy crime thriller you have to make damned sure the rules are spelled out (without being boring) – and then try to ensure you don’t break them. It’s worse when writing a series. Aaaargh!!!!!!!!!
That’s why damned Harry potter irritates me. I won’t read the books, but the films always have inconsistencies and magic simply doing things to get the characters out of scrapes with no regard whatsoever for any rules. No rules: no tension.
As for the characters – yeah, well, all fiction writers have that problem.
Oh, HP infuriates me no end, books AND films ( although film wise, Prisoner of Azkaban was best of a bad bunch ). JK Rowling is truly one of the world’s worst writers. I do not buy this ” but what does it matter, its just for kids ” bollocks, one little bit. Or the ” but she’s sold untold millions of books so she must be good ” stuff either. No, no, no. She is the modern equivalent of Enid Blyton – a dull minded pedestrian writer who has a few good characters and the odd charming idea or scenario, all of which catch people’s attention, but no clue as to real plot, consistency, substance, depth, human observation, or love of what she’s doing. And people get so caught up in a few funny names or fantasising about riding around on broomsticks or the fact they know someone in a family just like the Weasleys and just ignore the fact that the books are sodding awful.
Sorry, the H word always does that to me =P
Is the “Prisoner of Azkaban” the best? I shudder. yes, the special effects were lovely, but what do I see? I see a bus that rescues HP in the nick of time. How does anyone know he’s there? Well, it must be magic. ‘Nuff said.
Then there’s her habit of using Latin for spells. Grand if you’re a CM, but the rest of us stick to our own native tongue, with no ill effects. But hey – the general public expects we use the same language used by Elizabethan alchemists, so that’s OK, then.
What else? Oh yeah – Ron Weasley and HP keep on making comments about how did Hermione get into the classroom? Eventually All Is Revealed as her playing tricks with time. Fine, except why didn’t she enter the classroom with the others, in that case? Or, if she didn’t, she must have come in during the class and why didn’t the teacher notice when she opened the door? Playing tricks with time doesn’t mean you suddenly appear in a seat somewhere.
And then there’s the whole thing with the magic wood and how fantastic creatures seem to live there, without once going elsewhere (it must be a tad crowded!), and how, when fighting a basilisk (yeah, I know it’s another film) HP suddenly seems to be the complete sword wielder, without having studied fighting crafts.
As I say – great for kids, or people who so want to suspend their credulity that one suspects there wasn’t much to suspend in the first place.
As you say, fantasy without anything else to give it merit.