Writer's Blog - 12

A deadline approaches! Another chapter is due to be finished and read to the usual discriminating audience (the tutor and classmates at my Creative Writing Class) on Thursday 16th February.   So how is it going? Well, it's pretty much business as usual.  For me that means writing loads of draft scenes so that I can edit and re-write them into something I'm reasonably happy with.  I usually start off a bit depressed as I churn out the first draft. At that stage, the story seems to plod when I want it to dance. But then I perk up a bit as I revise it, buffing off rough edges and making it - I hope - more amusing.   It's all a bit of a juggling act.  There are several story-lines.  Each of them has to be kept going and kept interesting.  There are new characters to be introduced.  And I have to fill in the back-stories of some of the existing characters. The problem is how to do all of these things without losing the thread of the main story, confusing the reader, or letting the pace drop to a crawl. Sometimes even established authors get this wrong.   Ian Rankin is usually very good at engaging the reader's interest in the early pages of his popular crime novels.  But he once lost me completely, making me give up in confused disgust.  The problem?   He brought in a whole tribe of characters within a few pages.  It was just too much to assimilate at one time.   The chapter I'm working on will progress the main story and three sub-plots, while also introducing one major new character.   That seems more than enough! And now it's back to the word-processor...