Upping the Stakes

After reading as a reader, I found that the stakes really need to be ramped up early on in the book, so I added a new section, where the threat is introduced and emphasised earlier.  This means that I'm going to have to re-work several later sections, but overall I think it's going to work out.  I'll make this version VIIIa.

I also noticed some area where the POV is off.  I want both voices to be really distinct.  I hate reading a book where it's clear from the font or the chapter heading or whatever that the POV has changed, but halfway down the page you forget which POV you're in because they all sound the same. 

Reading as a Reader

So I finished reading through my manuscript for what feels like the 500th time.  It's still pretty funny to me, but I've become inured to the gross stuff.  I also found a big section that I need to cut, and another section that I need to add.  I really have to ramp up the tension more in the beginning, so I'm going to try to bring a main character in earlier to present the challenge. 

POV Finally Sorted

So I hung out under the snuggie all weekend finishing my POV break down.  I also did typed of all of my last rhee revisions.  Color coded my POV and then printed it out. 

Now I'm working on Proportion.  Starting out by reading as a reader.  Then I have to look for white space.  Still so much to do.  I don't know if I'll make my February deadline or not

And Still More POV

Still working on POV.  This is a very slow process.  I have seven more chapters to go.  Then I've got to re-type everything, and do another print out.  And then maybe another break.  But still so much to do.

I met with my critique group last night.  It wasn't really a group though.  Only one other person made it.  Of course that's probably because of the 20 below wind chill and the piles of snow everywhere. 

So our new critique group member is so talented.  What a great voice she has.  I'm very excited, and very jealous!

Gotta Love POV

Well my goal of getting my POV revisions done today is completely out the window.  This is going to be a hard one.  I think I'm going to try to leave most of it in the omniscient, but there are a few parts that have to dip into the main characters POV.  I hope this isn't taboo.  The books I've read seem to support this approach, but they also say that omnicient is outdated.  I just like it for this story because of the zombie aspect of things.  Especially in the beginning, I'm not sure we all want to be looking out of Milo's little magotty head.

Back to Work

Well, back to the job that is.  Luckily today was slow and I was able to get a lot of real work done on my revisions.  I completed Character and Exposition and now I'm working on the dreaded POV.  I'm still stuggling with POV. 

I started at the Third Act, or Chapter 20 on POV.  For Character and Exposition I had to start at Chapter 1, that's all that made sense.  But I think it helps to start in different places when possible. 

Anyway, I hope to complete POV tomorrow.  Then Thursday we have our first critique group meeting this year.

Happy New Year

I spent the past two days editing my whole book for, Show vs Tell.  Mainly looking for areas of Narrative Summary that needed to be changed to scenes or dialogue, or placed where I expressed a characters emotions instead of showing them.  I didn't find a great deal of narrative summary, assuming of course that I knew what I was looking for.  But overall, I think that this book is more heavy on action and diaglogue.  I hope that's OK since it's a "boy book"

I also tried something a little different on this pass through.  I started in the middle of the book instead of the beginning.  I was starting to feel that the beginning of the book was getting more attention than the end, and that at the end I peetered out and didn't do as good a job of catching things.  I think this was right, because I certainly made more changes to the middle and end of the book this round than I did the beginning. 

With many more revisions to go, hopefully I'll catch everything from beginning to end.  Next up is Character and Exposition.