That’s a good sign.
It means, of course, enough time has passed between Revision 17 and Revision 18. I can cut through the spare moments when I think I write good and see the glaring, fiery evidence that I cannot.
So what’s the next step?
A few possibilities:
1. Write a new synopsis of the story I want to write. Then write a detailed timeline to get me from A to Z. Then decide:
a. Look at what I’ve got and see what I can shoehorn into the plan, because certainly what I’ve got can’t all be krep
b. Start over.
2. Just start over, but without a coherent plan, pantser that I am.
3. Give up.
Clearly, I cannot choose No. 3. I want to write. Reading the first thirty pages, krep that they are, showed me I have some writing chops, though organizationally I appear to be as efficient as a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest.
And pantsing hasn’t really served me all that well the first seventeen times, though clearly I have gotten to a better idea of what kind of story I want to write, so the time wasn’t completely wasted.
Also, I’ve been reading a lot of Terry Pratchett lately, which is both good and bad. Good, because he keeps the story going. Bad because I know I’m light years from even the writing skills of Mel Gibson, let alone Mr. Pratchett. But it does give me something to aspire to. Because in reading Early Pratchett, you can see he was aping his elders a bit. Later Pratchett, he was his own master. That’s the journey I need to make.
If only I could cut out some of the intermediate steps . . .
More good news: I have a binder in which I’ve got my last notes on the book. Tucked into the plastic cover is an old synopsis I wrote. I re-read that too, and I can see that I’ve taken the story beyond that one. Maybe too far, which would explain why I’ve taken it through so many revisions. But I firmly believe it’s getting better, if not yet completely coherent.
On to the next thirty pages . . .
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