Daily "Fateplay" rewrite journal, Day 3.

I went to bed with doubts, woke up with hope.

The story feels right to me. It's much more measured, not as much of an information dump, and I believe more sympathetic and believable. More complexity and texture.

I believe I have at least two original chapters to write, and the rest can be adapted. So of course, those two chapters are intimidating.

One of them I'm writing today, so I'm hesitating because I don't want to get it wrong.

I can see now the first version of this story had some major problems. I'm not having to completely rewrite the first 20% like I did with "Shadows Over Summer House." Though I'd have been willing if needed. This kind of scheduled rewrite is probably a step I should take with every novel, even if it adds a month or two to the process.

I've been looking for a trick to motivate myself to rewrite for years now. I think the whole idea was overwhelming. Where do I start? When do I stop? After all, there is no end to possible improvements. There is also no end of ways I can screw it up. Every artistic effort can be ruined by too much tinkering.

So I have to keep a sort of measured approach. Make sure I give it full thought, but try not to go crazy.

The 10 page a day goal is perfect for that, I think. In fact, I'm wondering if I shouldn't go ahead and subject all my finished but unpublished novels to that process. Just go through them one by one. Not sure I have the discipline or patience, but I don't doubt the books could benefit.

Which really is the answer. Take that little be of extra time to make them better.

Going to try to get started writing around Noon again. That seems to be the best time for me.


3:30:

OK. I've got another 10 pages done, preliminarily. I'll have to come back in a couple of hours and go over it again, and then again after dinner.

I'm having to cut more than I thought I would. Luckily, the book is long enough to sustain that. If it ends up making it leaner, there's nothing wrong with that.

The biggest problem is that I've changed the main character--he's basically the same person, but with a different past. In one he's the lucky winner of a lottery, the founder of Pegasus Corp and Hyper-reality, but someone who lives modestly and is unknown. In the other, he's the son of the above character, someone who lives modestly because he doesn't know who he is. It turns out that is more a difference than I expected.

I losing some nice interpersonal interplay between the characters. All in service to the plot. Here's what I notice about reviews--people notice story above all. Of course, it's probably not a dichotomy; plot versus everything else; it's all connected, but when there is a choice to be made, I'm conscious of the story first.

Came back to it and added a fantasy scene at the end that helps explain the attraction between the leads. (Which I'd led up to more slowly the first draft.)


10:30:

One last rewrite session. Decided that I needed to make the main couple a little less friendly to each other at first. I want Numera to be a little standoffish and skeptical.

Was actually an easy fix and reads much better.

I also decided that I might as well make Zach completely broke at first. Another easy fix. Makes him more of an underdog.