I guess I’d been having too much fun writing the book, because I suddenly found myself at a point where I needed to ‘move things along’. I call them “traveling chapters”. The plot needs to get moving and it’s going to take a lot of details to get it where it needs to go. These can almost be the opposite of action chapters. I feel like yawning just thinking about it. Not that traveling chapters have to be boring, but in my experience they are slower and less engaging that any other type of writing. Oh, and by the way, I think you have to have them periodically. Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t mix in some dialog and action to liven things up a bit. In this case, I needed to set things up so that Ohrder and company have a way of dealing with vile beasts and later a giant lizard. The nuances of how that will happen are heavily nuanced, but I thought I might be able to make getting those details out a little more palatable by weaving them around a bit of romance and a dash of action. If that worked, things will be better, but it can also backfire, leaving you with choppy scenes and confusing plot mechanics. Time to see how we did.
EHLSEWHERE Chapter Twenty Four
Well, that was a mixed bag in my opinion. Lets start with the main goal, moving the plot forward…check. Job done. I can’t say well done though. The chapter wasn’t painful to read, but it did seem much longer than most of the other chapters and it really wasn’t. Breaking it down into the two areas, based on point of view, the first, Dharis and Chahrity scene moved right along and I found it much more engaging than the Ohrder and Shahdow piece. Since I’m kind of meh about romantic aspects of a story and I love action, I know I have a problem once I switched points of view. The most likely reason is that action isn’t really action if its viewed from the third person perspective. Verdict, the entire Ohrder and Shahdow piece needs a rewrite. The evens and plot mechanics can stay the same, but the writing needs to be brought to life. Ah well, to quote a plaque my kids got me for Christmas, “Write, revise, scream a little…repeat.”
My best to you and yours always,
Mike
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