While I?ve been pruning away on Finders Keepers, I wound up spending about two full days on a Jet Ski as I made my way to a distant shore.
That is to say, within the confines of the story.
There?s an establishing scene in Finders Keepers?one that leads up to something major?I?ve been working on, where Theo is in New Zealand, and wants to discuss something important with his brother. I had done my big read of the entire manuscript at this point, had made my notes by hand on the printed While I?ve been pruning away on Finders Keepers, I wound up spending about two full days on a Jet Ski as I made my way to a distant shore.
That is to say, within the confines of the story.
There?s an establishing scene in Finders Keepers?one that leads up to something major?I?ve been working on, where Theo is in New Zealand, and wants to discuss something important with his brother. I had done my big read of the entire manuscript at this point, had made my notes by hand on the printed pages, and was just inputting the changes in the file, but I still didn?t have the language quite right. So I tinkered a little, I tinkered a little more.
[i]Yep, that looks good, but …[/i]
[i]Nah, not quite right. [/i]
So I tinkered again, cut a few lines, added something new and … no.
On and on this went over two days, and for a short chapter–probably the shortest sequence in the entire book, only 500 words or so–it took me about 8 hours to get the language right. And then I read it through again, only to realize that there was still something missing, just a little phrase here, a wrong word there …
Well, I?m happy to say that I finally got it nailed down; I?m happy with the outcome. I think this seemingly transitional, but important scene took some real doing because I initially underestimated its significance. The big action comes after this scene, but it establishes where the characters are, and why it?s important they get there.
Even after all these reads of Finders Keepers I?m still finding little things to tweak. Now, I know that I could go on like this forever, always making tiny changes here and there, but this was something I just couldn?t let go. I thought it was going to take me 10 minutes, wound up taking 10 hours.
Sometimes it just goes that way … but it’s all worth it in the end.
Post edited by: rcolchamiro, at: 2008/02/15 13:40
Post edited by: rcolchamiro, at: 2008/02/18 18:13
