Cutting some slack

The itch is back. No, not that one. That cream I got from the Doc sorted that out just fine. Er … anyway. I mean the writing itch. It never really goes.

So, I had the urge today to start work again on a “novel” (using the term very loosely) I started a year or so ago, but which I abandoned some time back after the struggle got too much.

Time and distance and prescription strength rose-tinted specs had made me forget just what a monster I’d created. God it’s an ugly thing. No wonder I abandoned it. But I’ve also got some perspective on it. I can see why it’s so bad.

The first 10 chapters don’t need to be there. They’re just back story – boring, sub-plot spawning back story that doesn’t need to exist.

I had no idea what I was doing when I started it. Still don’t really know what to do – but maybe I’ve learnt a few things about what not to do. I can see that I wasn’t telling the story in scenes. I was just recounting every single action. No wonder it was dull. And long.

Because there were no ‘scenes’, everything was told – he did this and then he did this and then he went there etc, etc. Nothing was shown. A scene wasn’t written to reveal information or move the story along. It was written because that’s just what happened to the characters, innit.

So, yes, I need to rewrite the whole thing. But first I need to storyboard the scenes and whittle the story down to what is essential. (The more I attempt this thing, the more it seems that the golden rule is: cut. Cut, cut, cut and then cut some more.)

But at least rewriting a limited number of scenes seems manageable. And hopefully this time I won’t create another monster.