The Book Two Posts Ep. 7 AND About Writing Ep. 3

Because, sometimes, it's hard to talk about progress without talking about process. 

I spent a good bit of time today rewriting the climax. There are things I forgot to add to it, and there are things I have to go back into the earlier parts of the book to add. I recently removed a chapter that was several pages long, and, even so, it's  over 96K words now. I'm not too worried about the length. I know that I will be polishing in the third draft, and, as long as it makes the best use of the words, I'm happy with it. That's what the third draft will be all about.

So, basically, my process is pretty generic: Rough idea, rough summary that establishes a beginning middle and end, a general outline, rough first draft, fleshed out first draft, and polished draft.  After the initial polishing run-through, I go through as many times as necessary and proofread and edit. Somewhere in the process from rough idea to fleshed out first draft, I will spend time developing the story and brainstorming subplots, although development continues until the end as I improve the whole book.

Although it's taken me longer to complete this book than I had anticipated, I'm currently pleased with the progress even with the setbacks. My previous books actually took longer to write, so, despite having had several interruptions, I feel that I'm getting better. My books usually have a lot going on with lots of octopus arms to put to bed before it's complete.

While I'm on this subject, I want to mention literary versus commercial fiction. Genre fiction is usually commercial, although some authors have broken out of that mold. Anne Rice is a prime example. You may not think of vampire fiction as literary material, but it's more about writing style. Another major difference between the two is that commercial is subject to the whims of an ever changing audience. Young readers are often strongly opinionated, and the rules of commercial fiction are far more strict than literary. It's more plot-oriented and everything is all about moving the plot forward with rising tension. It has a lot to do with reader expectations.

Literary writing has a bit more to do with word play and skillful writing. It's more descriptive. It focuses on the type of character development that does not rely on a one-size-fits-all template. When you think about the hero's journey for plotting and character development, you're thinking about commercial fiction. Although I wouldn't go so far as to say that my books are literary, my writing style is somewhere between literary and commercial.

I remember when I wasn't sure if I could write a novel. Then I found out that all of my short story ideas were too big for short stories, and I had no choice but write novels if I wanted to write. That first book was the moment when I learned that I could finish a book. The next book was confirmation that I could do it again. This one is about writing a sequel. So I'm beyond the point where I have doubts that I can actually write a book (in less than a decade even), but I'm trying to write better and, hopefully, faster, too.

TTFN