Sunday 17 October 2010

Away from the NV bubble

And so... a mere month (longer?) after getting caught in the New Voices bubble I have returned to my keyboard and began writing again. To do this I splashed out £230 on a notebook, £230 I really don't have but I did manage to resist the Ipad despite spending long, lingering minutes stroking it surreptitiously avoiding the suspicious glares of the Comet men. My little notebook may not be so super sexy sleek or cool but it has a portable charm of its own and this week it has proved invaluable. I took it to the gym Friday and after tennis, spent 3 hours rewriting Chapt 1, latte to one side, trying to block out the baby bore Yummy Mummy with the carrying voice and her screeching child. A further 3 hours work, also at the gym today(small daughter was rather hilariously in a tennis tournament. Luckily she is very non competitive). So six hours of revision, editing, rewriting I have a new Chapt 1. Half the description and the flashback scenes gone, more dialogue, all in the present. Is it better? God, I do not know! My main worry is that the characters don't come across as real, that the emotional conflict isn't present and palpable. I know I can do description, can conjure up an atmosphere and I am a lot more confident with dialogue. But living, breathing, believable characters? Better ask my Crit group I suppose...

4 comments:

Xandra James said...

And it sounds like you're getting lots of use out of that notebook already! It also seems like you've taken a lot of time on your chapter one (which is fantastic!) and I'm sure you've made HUGE steps in the right direction and your crit group will help you even more.

Good luck Jessica and keep going :))

Sophia Harrop said...

Great stuff Jessica - I'm looking forward to having a read of that new Chapter 1!

Alexandra said...

Your lovely new notebook sounds like a very useful piece of kit for a writer! I admire you taking your work into a public place and getting on with it in spite of the surrounding cacophany. I've not had the courage to do that (except for the notebook of the paper variety on my lap practically under the table). Even then I find myself surreptitiously (or maybe not so surreptitiously) peering over my shoulder making sure that no-one was craning their neck to see what I was up to! Paranoid or what? Anyway, congratulations on your new Chapter. Let us know how you get on. :o)

Julia Broadbooks said...

I've completely reworked my first chapter. I cut about 25% and added a bunch of things I think I had glossed over in the usual version. I'm going to try and edit it a last time today and then see what everyont thinks.