Flexible
I’m in the midst of the rewrite of book two in the Edge series, and I was closing in on that middle section. Even back when I first wrote the book it felt slow to me, but I kept telling myself I was exploring character and relationships, and it was okay. From the beginning I had been looking at this action set piece as the climax of the book, and in my head that had to come at the end. It was the climax, right?
Well, I stepped back from the book and tried to look at it as if it were a movie up on white board, and suddenly it hit me that the climax would also make a hell of a second stage rocket. It would also punch up the pace in the middle section of the book. It makes this a much bigger rewrite, but it just feels completely right.
It also solves some problems at the end of the book where it felt like there was an awful lot happening after the “climax” of the book. I was trying to work in these scenes because it’s very important to me to make a time jump between books two and three (fingers crossed there will be a book three), but it felt like the book kept dribbling on after it should be over. I think I’ve got a powerful end for this new, restructured book, and I’m very exciting.
I’m not using this as an argument against plotting and outlining. In fact the reverse. I wouldn’t have spotted this if I couldn’t pull back from a work and look at the scenes I need, the tent poles that they’re building toward, and how those big scenes will anchor the entire structure. I think this is an example of not getting to wedded to your ideas and conclusions. I also realize that I didn’t subject this book to a rigorous plot break. I just started writing and then Tor said they wanted another book, and I just kept going without stopping to do the spade work in the beginning. Let that be a lesson to me. Still I’m happy because I’m going to end up with a better book at the end of the day.
Melinda
December 16th, 2007 at 10:26 am
You know, I think that may be a good idea. Looking forward to seeing it.