The Doubts Creep Back.

Maybe you can't work on something as long as I've worked on Faerylander without the doubts creeping back.

I feel as though I've -- mostly -- solved the beginning problems, though the fifth chapter (which used to be the first chapter, and then was the second chapter, and then the third chapter...eh) will probably always have the problem of too much exposition and not enough motion.  But I've got the story well underway now before I hit that chapter, and I've streamlined it so much that I think it works OK.

I'm fine with the book until I get toward the middle, and then it does seem like a whole lot of character chapters, again without much forward movement.  I'm going to ask my editors to CUT, CUT, CUT anything they don't think is necessary here.

The book is still over 100K words, and as far as I'm concerned, 20K words could be cut and it wouldn't hurt my feelings.  I'm just not sure how to do it.

I am currently focused on streamlining the book.  If the book has problems, the more I can whittle them down, the more I can focus on pushing the story, the better.

And I'm fine with the last part of the book, once the plot really sets in.  It was a little silly for awhile, but I think I've flushed that out.  It is pretty straightforward action.  I don't know if the emotional catharsis is enough at the end, and that is a HUGE problem, but I've done my best to set up the characters so that the reader cares.  The book was mostly missing that in the early versions.

I think the writing is good on some chapters, but a little stilted on others -- I hadn't quite relaxed into a style yet with this first book.

And then there is the problem of changing it from 3rd person to 1st person.  I have a whole lotta "I's."

As Bren has suggested, I'm trying to rewrite some of these sentences by changing the subject from "I."

So what do I have here?  Does this book work?

I don't know.  I have decided that the difference between a good book and a bad book may not be as wide as you might assume.  That is, a bad book can become a good book with a few changes.  So I'm glad I've kept trying to fix this.

But never, ever again will I do this. 

And as I say, if you want to be a writer, you have no choice but to write through the doubts.