Hey all.
Have't posted in a while, but I've returned to my job as an elementary school French and Music Teacher, so I've been 'Real-World' occupied. That's the way of things.
Just a note to say that the most completed Draft I have generated, #6, is nice and all . . . but I find that I am able to conceive of how to modify the story to make the narrative more immediate. Draft #7 is my attempt to bring the tale of Elpis and his friends into a format that is more gripping. I must say that I have been guilty of wanting to reveal my wonderful fantasy world as fast as I could. I'm a first-time author, what can I say? Well, having read "The Lost Gate", by Orson Scott Card, and "The Hunger Games" since I last blogged has shown me that my chronicle-style narrative, hopping from moment to moment through Elpis' young life, is less immediate than I am wanting.
Therefore, I am now able to conceive of how to delay the revalation of him being from Opal until well into the story....the strangeness of his powers is a mystery to him and to the reader, and they discover it together. Uncle Saul's secretive meetings and mysterious connections will still be there, but the reader won't have the answer to SOME of the questions until graduation day, and those will help move Elpis / Topaz towards the right questions that he has to ask to get the answers that he needs.
(Confession: It is a very exciting thing for me to actually be able to conceive of this level of reformatting. The sheer size of this task is not as daunting as it might of been, at some earlier part of my life. Not sure why, but not complaining either. This manuscript WILL be ready. It might have to be middle of August now, but Focus is no longer the Foe that it used to be.)
TTFN
Jeff
Have't posted in a while, but I've returned to my job as an elementary school French and Music Teacher, so I've been 'Real-World' occupied.
Just a note to say that the most completed Draft I have generated, #6, is nice and all . . . but I find that I am able to conceive of how to modify the story to make the narrative more immediate. Draft #7 is my attempt to bring the tale of Elpis and his friends into a format that is more gripping. I must say that I have been guilty of wanting to reveal my wonderful fantasy world as fast as I could. I'm a first-time author, what can I say? Well, having read "The Lost Gate", by Orson Scott Card, and "The Hunger Games" since I last blogged has shown me that my chronicle-style narrative, hopping from moment to moment through Elpis' young life, is less immediate than I am wanting.
Therefore, I am now able to conceive of how to delay the revalation of him being from Opal until well into the story....the strangeness of his powers is a mystery to him and to the reader, and they discover it together. Uncle Saul's secretive meetings and mysterious connections will still be there, but the reader won't have the answer to SOME of the questions until graduation day, and those will help move Elpis / Topaz towards the right questions that he has to ask to get the answers that he needs.
(Confession: It is a very exciting thing for me to actually be able to conceive of this level of reformatting. The sheer size of this task is not as daunting as it might of been, at some earlier part of my life. Not sure why, but not complaining either. This manuscript WILL be ready. It might have to be middle of August now, but Focus is no longer the Foe that it used to be.)
TTFN
Jeff
No comments:
Post a Comment