What I’m Doing Today…

Since I did not make my writing goals over the weekend, I used this opportunity to take a good look at what I’d already done on Truth About T.M.S. and make sure everything’s still working. I normally rewrite nonstop as I push slowly forward…in other words, I don’t move beyond a certain chapter/section/whatever until I’m happy with it. I don’t skip around. I write straight through my story — beginning, middle and end. But in the last couple of days last week I found myself skipping ahead. That deviation from my normal routine was a clue that something may not be working quite the way I think it is. So I wanted to take a good honest look at things.

I LOVE telling this story through multiple viewpoints…I’ve never done a book like this before. But doing it this way definitely has some challenges. One, the book is something of a whodunit, so I have to make sure that whatever each character says is true, but at the same time doesn’t reveal whether they are the culprit or not (so far so good there). And two, pacing is more challenging than I expected. More challenging than I realized while I was writing…I didn’t realize I had a pacing problem while I was writing, but in rereading what I’ve done so far, I see there are places I’m allowing too many characters to give their take on what’s just happened. And that’s starting to bog the story down a little.

So what am I going to do about it? Well…I’ve already got a ten page outline. I know where the story is going, and I know (pretty much) how I’m going to get there. I just don’t know WHO is going to get me through each plot point. So what I’m doing now is outlining the story via point of view, and noting how each point of view switch advanced the story. I want to continue this throughout the entire story…which should (in theory) make the writing go smoother. No more skipping around…