pjthompson | Chatty folks (Reply)

Once I gave my main character, Molly, in the new WIP permission to tell me about herself, she’s been going crazy with the information. Chatter, chatter, chatter. Her, her Uncle Dray, her Grandma Theodora. Which is good—it adds all those nice layers I need. Which could be bad down the road—too much information, probably, that will have to be cut. But I don’t seem to be able to do this process any other way. I seem to be stuck with writing large and cutting down.

I’ve essentially rewritten the same three pages for the last three days, which is not as grim as it sounds. I start off on page one to read through it and before long, Molly’s off on some tangent, adding and padding material. What was originally page three now begins on the bottom of page five. I’ve added about 1100 words to the opening. More than that, I’ve added pages and pages of notes and charts, figuring things out, seeing where the connections take me, broadening the picture of this family. It’s all good, all what I need to know.

Even if I wind up cutting a lot of it.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the title poll. Sympathetic Magic edged out Time in a Bottle, and after giving it due consideration, I decided to let my prejudice against Time in a Bottle make my decision. I’m going to be calling this novel Sympathetic Magic for the time being.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.