What I've noticed is that from page one to page one hundred, not only did the plot move forward too quickly but the characters began to gain and lose definition. Confused? So was I. In the beginning, I had a pretty clear idea of who they were and what they wanted, but the evolving relationships and storyline made me see that as clear as everything seemed in the beginning, the beginning now seemed too vague.
After two days of mulling over the idea that I may have to do a drastic re-write when all I really wanted to do was to write the next scene that was harrassing my thoughts, I got down and dirty with the characters, re-wrote the introduction, moved the original introduction into "to be used as an illuminating flashback or CUT" pile, and can now tighten and mildly edit the second scene.
The rest of the day was spent learning about the Lost Wax Method in sculpture, stumbling across a rather fantastic Sculptor's Diary that is next on my MUST read list, and instant messaging my sweet and funny cousin in Toronto. Now, to more of the Paris Journal by Janet Flanner. It is now 1961.
Posted 8:33:48 PM:: home
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Monday, February 10, 2003
Talking to M about my problem conceptualizing the three sculptures in my story, he offered a brilliant solution, and he offered to sketch it out for me. M is wonderful, for more reasons than I can ever offer. He also noted that my motif of three women/three sculptures is not unlike the idea of the three hags in mythology. That got me thinking maybe I can refer to that for a better definition of the sculptures and how they relate to the women in my story. Everything really must have a meaning in a novel, otherwise you lose the thread, and definitely confuse the reader. My being slightly confused tells me it's time to re-evaluate, so today is the big day. I'm printing out a draft of the first third of what is a complex story. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about editing it, if I'll re-type the whole thing or work from existing files. Since much of what I wrote is thought prompts and isolated scenes to build plot, there is a lot more writing, or fleshing out, that needs to be done.
Interesting mythology links:
Minor Gods
A Czech Legend
Pan Slavic Traditions and Beliefs
Posted 6:00:48 PM:: home
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