Thursday, August 12, 2010

Can I Get a Drumroll...

No, it might not seem like a big deal to most people who don't write. But we authors know exactly how it feels to watch that word count grow. Especially when you are in the revising stage!

At the moment, I am sitting at 8,403 revised words for LoBR.

Can I get a "Woot!"?

I have been struggling with this story since I first wrote it during last years National Novel Writing Month. I have issues. Mostly, I have so much information that I've used to build my fantasy world that I try very hard to shove as much of it down the reader's throats as I can in one shot.

It obviously doesn't work, hence the struggling on my part. So I decided to take those huge chunks of information from the first draft and use them to sprinkle throughout my story and therefore starting said story in the middle. Where it should have started. In the first place.

I suppose those who write high fantasy feel this way sometimes as well. You have all this cool information about your world that you want to share all of it in one huge lump.

Well, I have forced myself to hammer that lump down to a thin wafer. While it is still not polished to absolute perfection, it is far better and different than what I started with. This is the same thing that happened with Crowning Absolution. I will take the huge chunks of world building from that as well and shave it down to fit nicely into its little niche.

Oh the joy of being an author. ::Chuckles::

I hope everyone has had a great week and hope you all have a great weekend!

So tell me how you whittle things down to fit?

7 comments:

Ted Cross said...

I have a vast history of my fantasy world that doesn't make it into the book. It makes me sad because it is so fascinating. I end up telling parts of in on my blog here and there, and I also hope that in future books in the series I might get a chance to use some of it.

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Thanks for an excellent post, I write what I feel at any given moment,

Yes you do get your drumroll
Enjoyed very much.

Anonymous said...

You can get a WOOT and I'll raise you a YAY!

Hart Johnson said...

Woot! for you. Well done! I know it's hard to do, but maybe keep the text for your website when the book comes out--even though it interupts flow in the novel, some people love to look at it.

Talli Roland said...

That's fantastic, Mel! Big whoot for you!

Jessica Bell said...

Great! I know how you feel. It's hard not to just dump everything in you head onto the page! :o)

Are you a writer? Then you MUST enter this CONTEST!

angelarene said...

I just recently went through this and truly it was quite traumatizing because I wasn't sure where to put what I had cut...Drove me quite mad and stalled my word count, but I got an epiphany and I think with writing Fantasy it's harder to do..So I feel your pain and glad to know you came through as well

From a fellow poor white girl :)