Slumpy Middle
Friday, May 4, 2007
No, that's not the name of my new rock band. Although our first single, Gastric Bypass, would be destined for the Billboard Top 100 chart, for sure.
This post is about that novel I'm almost, almost done. Turns out the middle is...slumpy.
Was it taking out the extra 128 characters that caused the slumpage? Probably not. And the elimination of 15 scenes that involved eating should have keep the pace...skinny.
It appears that my main characters stopped and said: "Motivation? What motivation?" and then took a dance break. For three chapters. Oh, and when I say "dance break," I'm referring to dancing around the urgent matters in the novel—not the foxtrot or rumba.
So I had a little heart-to-heart with my heroine. She told me to stop messing with her life. She was starving and missed her 128 friends.
Despite my assurances that she didn't really need these people in her life and she could stand to lose the 225 pounds she gained in Draft 1, she threatened to end up with the WRONG MAN at the end of the novel.
I responded with a threat to change her name. To Rasputin.
Luckily we've called a truce. And she's promised to stop encouraging me to write about fast food when I work through the revisions. ;)
This post is about that novel I'm almost, almost done. Turns out the middle is...slumpy.
Was it taking out the extra 128 characters that caused the slumpage? Probably not. And the elimination of 15 scenes that involved eating should have keep the pace...skinny.
It appears that my main characters stopped and said: "Motivation? What motivation?" and then took a dance break. For three chapters. Oh, and when I say "dance break," I'm referring to dancing around the urgent matters in the novel—not the foxtrot or rumba.
So I had a little heart-to-heart with my heroine. She told me to stop messing with her life. She was starving and missed her 128 friends.
Despite my assurances that she didn't really need these people in her life and she could stand to lose the 225 pounds she gained in Draft 1, she threatened to end up with the WRONG MAN at the end of the novel.
I responded with a threat to change her name. To Rasputin.
Luckily we've called a truce. And she's promised to stop encouraging me to write about fast food when I work through the revisions. ;)
posted by Bonnie Staring at 12:19 PM
4 Comments:
My NaNo had a crazy slumpy middle. I talked about meat for an entire chapter.
Btw, that black cat story was hilarious. I don't get Jehovah witnesses. Only 100,000 into heaven and there's more than 100,000 J.W.'s and their trying to recruit more. What's up with that.
Rasputin ... oh those Russians.
I think chapters about meat are the way to go, Amy. Isn't there a session about it during the RWA conference in Dallas? The title options are endless:
Beefing Up Your Novel
Raising the Steaks
Going for Well Done with a Raw Idea
"It appears that my main characters stopped and said: "Motivation? What motivation?" and then took a dance break. For three chapters. Oh, and when I say "dance break," I'm referring to dancing around the urgent matters in the novel—not the foxtrot or rumba."
For a second I thought you were writing the sequel to Footloose.
Good job telling your characters what they should really be doing. Now tell them to print it out, put it in a box and take it to the post office for you.
That's a fabulous idea. Thanks Mike!
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