Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Crazy Week

This has been a crazy week so far . . . and it's only Tuesday. Geesh!

Writing - been doing that . . . and then some. I'm in the process of eliminating an entire perspective from a manuscript. This accomplishes two things: tightens up the manuscript and eliminates the necessary words since there are such things as acceptable word counts. Great. Fine. Dandy. I've also been working on the urban fantasy at the same time. Basically, I work on one chapter per night in the eliminate the perspective thingy, and then I work a bit on the urban fantasy project.

Now, eliminating a perspective isn't as easy as it sounds. I have to figure out what I need to incorporate from the eliminated perspective into the remaining perspectives. Now, this is easier said then done, because there are three perspectives as follows: Character A, B, and C. But . . . yes, that nifty little word that sometimes carries the sound of doom, doom, doom! But . . . being the clever, and sometimes snarky, person that I am, I thought why not alternate the perspectives as follows:

Chapter 1 - Character A, B, and C
Chapter 2 - Character C, A, and B
Chapter 3 - Character B, C, and A
Chapter 4 - Character A, B, and C

Do you see my dilemma? I'm eliminating the perspective of Character B which means that sometimes his perspective (i.e. section) is the 2nd one in the chapter, sometimes the 3rd, and sometimes the 1st . . . which can really make eliminating/incorporating a, well, nasty little proposition! So far - knock on wood - it hasn't been too difficult. Yes, I know, I just cursed myself. Such is life. So (btw, I'm reading a book right now that is excessively using that word, so I'm not the only one), right now the process is fairly easy, but there will come a time when the process becomes quite difficult. Then again, aren't the difficult tasks the ones that make us stronger? I sure as heck hope so!

Other than that, I do have plans to get back to posting some enlightening (well, at least in my mind) stuff on this blog. I know I've short-changed everyone a bit lately with my crazy posting schedule, but, never fear Sweet Polly Purebred . . . Underdog is here. Okay, not seriously, but, bear with me and I'll get back on track, but probably not until next week.

S

3 comments:

Stina said...

You've just given me another reason to stick with one perspective. ;)

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Oh, no worries about posts. It's your blog, and we're happy when we see you!

My novella has only one perspective, and it's really strange...after writing three other novels with multiple POVs. Crazy stuff!

Good luck! You can do it. :)

Scott said...

Stina – multiple perspectives aren’t bad. The interesting thing is showing the same situation from various perspectives. What one person doesn’t see, another person does see . . . and all that jazz. The fact is, I’ve known for a while that this one perspective really wasn’t working, but I couldn’t face cutting it out. Now, down to the nitty-gritty, the perspective has to go. Yeah, it’s taking some work, but, in the end, I really believe it’ll all be worthwhile.

Lady Glamis – thanks. I just don’t want people to think I’ve dropped out of the blogsphere. The last couple of projects I’ve done rough drafts on have been from one perspective. It’s a totally alien feeling writing that way since for the longest time I used the multiple perspective technique. Sometimes, it’s easier to have one perspective, but I haven’t always taking the easy road in this crazy life I lead.