Paksworld

Progress indeed, despite another attack of headache in the afternoon–not only some smoothing, but about 4000 words of the necessary cuts (admittedly, part of  that was finding a fossil duplicate chapter hiding out two chapters away from where it belonged…how did it sneak over there??)    Read the rest of this entry »

All the detached chapters and sections are back in the main file, and everything’s renumbered.   (This doesn’t mean I’ve renumbered everything correctly, judging by past experience!)   I’m now at least 9000 words over my planned  length, so the afternoon (of a beautiful day, alas) will be spent in both patching and cutting.   Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I had more input from Agent about the last part of the book.   As this call came just as I was heading outdoors to clear my head, I’m glad he also put comments in email.   Some  comments have already been dealt with by changes made since his first call, some will mean further changes, and some…hmmm… Read the rest of this entry »

So, today,  I faced the need for another chapter.   Yes, another chapter must be included.    And I think the previous chapter needs to be split (for story-logical reasons) so that its latter part becomes the first part of the new chapter (which presently rejoices in the designation of Chap-18a.)   Some research in Oath of Gold reminded me of specific persons the right age to know the relevant bits of history who were still alive then…and thus should still be alive now and able to recall said bits. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s work was cautious fiddling with the changes already made…should this go here?  Or here?   Should this bit go before or after that bit?   Read some sections aloud.   Ick, a clunky chunk, away with it.   A fossil of an earlier draft: away with that, too.  But this bit from yet another draft…should go back in, maybe?  Put it in, took it out, put it back in, decided to “save as” an alternate form of the chapter. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday’s workday turned into a mere shadow of itself thanks to something I ate that didn’t love me for some hours of the night before.  But still–progress.  Sort of.  I was going back over the work on Book II and realized that I had totally ignored a “conversation file.”

What, you might well ask, is a “conversation file?” Read the rest of this entry »

“Are we there yet?”  ask the impatient ones.

Maybe.  Closer, anyway.   The readers now like the first two of the POV sections to be worked on.  As always,  any change affects the whole, so a perfectly good next chapter now isn’t perfectly good.  Nor the one after that, or after that…there’s the propagation of information (nice catchy phrase–belongs in a Tom Lehrer song…)   Spoilers below, for the spoiler-avoidant among you. Read the rest of this entry »

So…the readers agreed that the changes made the chapters better.

Now they want more better.   That hollow pcck-pock-pock you hear is me beating my head on the desk (actually impossible as the keyboard is in the way and it’s an old, sturdy keyboard I don’t want to risk…) Read the rest of this entry »

First two chapters of the revised POV are done…or rather, they are done enough that they went off to two readers, with some process questions in addition.

If those chapters do what I hoped, and the answers to the process questions indicate a clear path for the next few POV chapters, I won’t need to do much to some of them…the scene is set.   Some spoilerish details follow.

Read the rest of this entry »

Talk about mixed blessings…I get this monster down to a reasonable length, and then someone says “Yes, but…” and I start working on that, and boom! comes a plotbomb that explodes all over the scenery, showering it with many-many words.  Read the rest of this entry »