Productivity: 0

 I have made 0 contribution to any of my works in progress this week. This is clearly not good. And still, instead of writing, I'm blogging! I mean, really!

I have actually reduced my word count by 1000 words by taking out that pesky chapter 19 that's just not needed. There you go, I've done something to the book. I can't explain this lack of productivity. Over the summer, in August, I was working my socks off on this novel. 

Being back at Day Job certainly takes a lot of brain energy and I am wiped out in the evenings. And every other available moment is spent with my little family. 

What else needs to be done? Well, now that chapter 19 has been snipped out entirely and anything that was relevant pasted onto the front of chapter 20, all the chapters need to be renumbered. 

That just leaves the complete rewriting of chapters 20-25, but I don't know where to start. What's wrong with them? They're a bit thin. I'm reading books to my son and they just seem to rich and full of things happening in the background. It's like the saggy middle strikes my novel again. 

I'm analysing the books I'm reading, trying to work out where I'm going wrong. For example, in one I'm reading to my son at the moment, nothing really happens in the first half of the book. The MC goes to the place the action is going to happen but it's not until the midpoint where the actual plot HAPPENS. The midpoint is very clear, everything changes and the bad guys close in afterwards. 

I need to be more horrible to my characters. In the book I'm reading to my son, the MC doesn't have it all rosy in the beginning of the book. He's bullied, he has to do things he doesn't want to, like attend parties of people he doesn't like, and he's persecuted by people who don't like him through no fault of his own. 

That could happen to Lexi. Instead of just having fun in the Hub, she could have to do things she doesn't want to, like cleaning, or fixing, or going in the gunge tank. It could be anything. And Tim could be having a great time, to show the contrast between the characters. Tim didn't want to be there in the first time, but he's enjoying it, and Lexi did everything she could to get there and she's not having a great time. It would be the fuel to the mistake she makes at the midpoint that puts in motion the rest of the story. 

I may actually have something here! I knew doing a blog post would be a good idea. The trouble is, seriously, where do I start? 

Never Finished

 As I've mentioned before, I am reading my novel aloud to an audience. I don't know if it's the story or the way I read it, but my novel is currently being well received. 

The thing is, it's far from perfect. I'm looking at the structure of my novel now as I'm reading more (having more time to read now that my book is 'finished') and watching films more, I'm seeing where magical elements could be added to make it more wow. 

For example, after the catalyst (the incident that starts all the conflict off, ie Harry getting a letter from Hogwarts) in my novel, there's still adventure and conflict, but there's no wonder. Things happen that I think (hope) are interesting, but no awe. 

I've really streamlined this part of the book. I've cut out the superfluous detail that didn't really help the plot or the character development. I have some wiggle room with my word count now, especially as I'm going to cut out chapter 19 completely. (I just need to go through it to see if there's any plot or character development that can be moved to an earlier or later chapter.)

Now that I have a bit of wiggle room with the word count, as I'm at 59k words whereas the limit for my genre is 65k for a debut novel, I can see about fleshing out any thin or flaky parts of the novel. 

I know that chapters 20 - 25 are a bit weak and need filling out a bit. I mean, there's trimming the superfluous and then there's leaving the novel completely bereft of detail, plot and fun. 

Another thing I'm thinking is that my chapters are too short. I have 43 chapters, because they're roughly 1000 words each. That seems a lot of chapters to me, so I think I need to restructure the novel. It works quite well reading for a short period of time, however, so I'm not sure. And my audience quite likes the chapter headings. They ask for me to tell them what the next chapter is called, and guess what might happen in it. 

I'm struggling to focus on editing my manuscript while I'm reading it to my audience. You can probably tell because I'm writing this blog post instead of working on the novel. It's open on this PC, lingering in the background while I type. I've chopped out the offending chapters that I want to work on and set them aside from the fourth draft of this novel. 

The thing is, I've made notes on the one I'm reading aloud. What if I change things and then the notes are irrelevant. Or if the notes make the changes I would have made unnecessarily. Those notes are based on actual, audience reactions. And I don't feel as if I can work on it until I've finished reading this draft aloud. 

The answer is simple... 

.... work on the new novel! 

If I knew where to start it, I would! 

From the Start

 Plotting a novel from the start is a very different experience than just setting out writing not knowing really what the destination is going to be. 

I didn't think I was getting anywhere, but comparing this photo to a previous one, it does show that the book is taking shape. There's not much for the second half of the book or the ending, but that's ok. 

I feel like this is the blurry outline of my novel and it will all become clearer as I add in the specifics. 

 I know my main character's main want: to go to school. 

I know my main character's flaw: she doesn't know enough, she lacks the knowledge to achieve her goal or even maintain the status quo. 

Knowing those two things, according to the plotting books and story writing guides, is the main part of writing the novel. Hopefully it'll all just fall into place from here on. 

In Other News... 

I'm reading Book 1 aloud and realising that it has a few problems in chapters 22 and 23 especially and I probably will cut out chapter 19 altogether as it doesn't add anything to the plot or the character development. The one or two bits of information that we might need in chapter 19 could easily be slipped into other chapters. 

The remaining chapters also feel a little thin. From chapter 19 to 25, I've felt like the writing could be richer, there could be more added to the chapters to make the world a little more sparkly and interesting. 

I'm working on it!