Step by Step

Back to the Complimentary Murder revision. It is easy to get distracted by the corrections, feeling that to change so much means that it sucks. I have to remind myself that many writers' claim the motto, "Writing is rewriting." If I keep reducing the suck factor and increasing the cool factor, eventually it will become worthy of the publisher's money.

So far tonight I have made changes in two more pages, but I still need to try and add 10 lines of new text for those pages. It shouldn't be hard since this scene feels sketched instead of fully formed.

Progress

I have 5 of the 14 pages revised, each with at least 10 new lines, and most with a few more. It is important to be sure these are quality additions, and not merely filler. Most have been insights on the characters or the situation with setting info sprinkled in to ground the action into the story world. This chapter is dialogue heavy and needed the balance with the other story elements.

I'm done for today, but tomorrow I plan to plow back into the action.

Coming Up For Air

I figured that to add the needed 5 pages to the current chapter of 14 pages, I would have to write an average of 10 new lines a page. I like breaking down the numbers so I can tackle my goal step by step. I have added 10 lines to the first page, most of those were to demonstrate the main character's emotion during the rather upsetting situation. I also managed another 5 lines so far on the second page. There are a lot of characters huddled around in a single room discussing the murder that occured a few chapters ago. I think I need to break up these 'talking heads' with some setting and details.

And I just had the perfect idea!

I will get back to that now. I just stop to up date the blogger as a way of patting myself on the back for finally breaking through the writer's block.

Complimentary Murder

Well, at long last I have picked up a pen again. I reread the first four revised chapters of CM. They were as good as I hoped they'd be. I still have to revise the rest of the book. I have to add at least 5 pages per chapter and write an additional 4 chapters to hit the word count requirement.

So, here I go....

The Price of Dreams

My short story, "The Price of Dreams", is now playing on RPG Radio. Check the schedule on the website for the times. It plays at the very beginning of the StoryTime Theater hour.