Where the writing flows …
I’ve been doing quite a bit of editing these past couple of days. It is mostly inspired (and instigated) by my new crit pal 🙂 I haven’t actually gotten that many critiques of my work – partially because I haven’t been able to find good (and reliable) beta readers but also because I don’t have the time to give back to a crit group. I hate joining a crit group and then not putting in enough effort but just coasting along so that I can get my own stuff critted. That seems somehow dishonest.
But I digress. Working one on one with another writer can be really helpful. I’ve gotten feedback on what works and what doesn’t work with "Honest" and thinking about it, I realized that the opening chapter (the one which is currently up on my site :p) is too long. I spend too much time on two characters and then completely forget them for several chapters as I introduce more new characters. I decided to see if it would work better by cutting the first chapter into several different chapters (or scenes) and interspersing the introduction of the other characters in between. It seems to work (to me) but what do I know? :p
I also got another rejection early in the morning today 🙂 This is the second rejection in about a week for this short story. This is actually from one of the few places which usually gives feedback on their rejections but this time, the rejection didn’t prove to be very helpful. It said, "Intriguing as this is, it moves awfully slowly – I’m not sure if it’s just the pacing, or the excessive exposition. The footnotes are amusing, for a while, and then become a little annoying, too – I suggest using them judiciously, if at all." It’s not very helpful when they aren’t sure why the story moves slowly – at least, for me. I’m kind of wondering if I should give up on the short stories and simply take the time to work on my novels. Or if I should put writing on hold for a while and get back to coding …. Guess I’ll figure it out 🙂