Hey, all! Today is the day in which I talk about a current WIP of mine. Also, I'm going to talk about Dragon*Con, Carrie Ryan, and robots, so stick around.
First today's menu is a gigantic helping of cool excuses as to why I haven't exactly been working on my MSS this past couple of days.
Excuses:
It's been a busy week for me. My husband and I went to the Decatur Book Festival, for one thing, where I heard Carrie Ryan talk about her zombie books. That was cool. But it did interfere with writing.
Also we did stuff with friends and family.
Then we spent a day at Dragon*Con:
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| Cute little lego stormstroopers! |
But still, no writing.
But I'll talk about the WIP anyway:
I'm still having trouble with the flow of the story, and perhaps this is where some of my procrastination is coming from... I'm slowly uncovering the motivations of various characters and figuring out their convoluted back stories, but even then the writing itself is feeling clunky to me. Slow. Clogged. I need to do something, but I'm not sure what it is yet. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.
The problem MIGHT be the POV (I'm currently writing in 3rd, but the story is beginning to feel like it needs to be 1st ... since I'm 30k in at this point I rather dread the prospect of changing it...)
Also, robots:
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| He could look like this. |
I really really really really really wish I had a robot that could change the POV or tenses for me when this happens, because it is SO TEDIOUS to do myself. I would call him Robob. Will someone invent him for me, please?
Thanks. I'll be eternally grateful.
My instinct is that it probably isn't the POV, but it depends on your style of 3rd. I write a 3rd that might as well be 1st. If you're going omniscient narrator and you feel the story should be more intimate, that could be why, yeah. However, if you're omniscient 3rd, changing to first wouldn't need a robot; it'd need a complete rewrite.
ReplyDeleteJust try writing in 1st and go back and change it if it works. Don't waste time changing it now. You might find you have the same problem in 1st and 3rd.
My gut is it's a characterization problem. But that's going out on a limb. Eh. Good luck!
Your style of 3rd is a bit more intimate than mine--sometimes I can't remember if your stuff is written in 1st or 3rd, actually.
ReplyDeleteI like reading in 3rd, but sometimes I think I write it clumsily. I'll probably experiment with a few passages in 1st and see if that works out for me ... technically the story doesn't NEED to be in 3rd because I have no "head jumping" from one character to the next in this book. Plus I could technically do that in 1st anyway, I guess.
If I were you, writing just 1 POV, I would do 1st, definitely. I prefer to read and write 1st. Well, if the 1st is GOOD, you know. Makes use of it.
ReplyDeleteI will invent Robob after I invent ManSpan, a male attention span lengthener. It's on my to-do list.
ReplyDelete@Candyland Haha, excellent! I could DEFINITELY use ManSpan as well.
ReplyDelete@Jaimie I also prefer to write in 1st. "They" always say it's harder to write but I personally find it much easier because the perspective is limited completely to that person's head, whereas 3rd can sometimes be expanded beyond that to the reader outside the MCs awareness, and I don't always know how to play with that extra layer of information.
I will try it in 1st today... hopefully this will help. Sometimes that's all it takes to get the ball rolling.
good luck on the tense change try! i crit for a gal who changed her entire novel from 3rd to 1st after feeling it lacking after a few edits... so at least 30k is less than 80 or so! :)
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