Rebeca Schiller

I’m practicing a dual writing process. For my small writing group, I am posting revised chapters I previously submitted to the Novel’s List at IWW while I send new material to the list.

Somehow this method seems to help with the new material because I don’t need to go back and see whether a detail that plays in the future gets somehow turned around in later chapters because I don’t recall it. In other words, it’s helping with continuity.

For each round of revisions, I’m either cutting or adding scenes, switching the order, reworking dialogue so that it sounds natural to the ear and so on.  I’ve realized, though, that much of the narrative still needs more oomph, or more in-depth detail.

I have to admit that I’m losing patience with myself and I want to finish the damn book so I can move on to the next

If you may recall about two months ago I lamented about a particularly nasty and tactless critique I received via the Novels writing list from one of the members of the Internet Writing Workshop. I was told that I should read The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman.

I haven’t read it, but another member did and after reading her comments it got me thinking that maybe the “Nasty One” had a point. I don’t think that the first five pages of the chapter need to be rewritten, but maybe the first two paragraphs.

Since it was my turn to submit this week to the new writing workshop, I decided to take a very relevant part of the story in Julius and move it right up front and center. So far