Tuesday 15 September 2009

Monster chapter!

Okay, hands up. Who has been feeding chapter seven pies behind my back? A few weeks ago chapter seven consisted of mild innocent looking pages that had been nibbling ryvita and cottage cheese. Yet tonight I discover that in actual fact chapter seven has been woofing chocolate and cakes at every turn and is now so lardy it has split its pants.

Is this redrafting, is it? The point of editing is cutting down surely, not giving chapters steroid injections.

It is that whole ‘show not tell’ thing that is coming back to haunt me. Of course I want to show things, but not everything. I want to keep some sort of subtlety about the proceedings. I don’t want chapter seven to be standing there nude swinging nipple tassels like some bawdy old stripper, which I fear it is doing at the moment. But the only way I can see to get around this is to plod on to the encore in all its glory and then I will be able to see which parts of the act to cut.

It probably doesn’t help that I am tired. I fear I am ‘writing by numbers’ this evening, and all I am doing is scene-sketching – he said, she said, etc. This part of writing for me is like sketching it out with a pencil, but I tap it straight onto the computer. The bits I like come in afterward – the descriptive turn of phrase, the better wording – the grammar! But it does come together eventually. I hope!

Monster Chapter’s Vital Statistics

Height: 30 pages
Weight: 7368 words
Weight toned so far: 4351
Weight left to lose: 3493 words
Favourite food: The word ‘said’.

5 comments:

Kit Courteney said...

Oh, joy that I'm not alone in harbouring a porky passage.

Hmmm...that didn't come out right. But you know what I mean.

Some of my chapters look ever so slightly rounded and all I want to do is lose a small bit of lardy stuff from each to give them their optimum BMI.

But several have come out looking as if they buy their frocks from Camping & General.

It's not a good look.

Anonymous said...

This post gave me such a giggle! :) 'Nude swinging nipple tassels like some bawdy old stripper'... *wipes away a tear*

Good luck and may you have a trim and toned chapter seven!

Jayne said...

Hi Kit! I was chortling merrily at 'porky passage'. *grins*

It appears dieting is an effort whether it is me, or my writing!

Jayne said...

Hi WildwoodMoon! Glad to have given you a giggle. I also hope for a nice trim and toned chapter - one day it'll get there. I live in hope!

Law and Order said...

I giggled from the start, couldn't stop! I'm sure you'll find the right trim and tone sooner or later. Good on ya!