2010-Aug 07

So far I have received some wonderful feedback from a few of my editors. I hope to summarize what I have learned in a follow-up email after I get feedback from most of you, though I do not intend to revise Chapters 5 and 6 right away. Instead, I will continue with the story and allow my writing to mature before I go back to correct my errors. This way, nobody gets bored (including myself).

I have written the first few pages of Chapter 7. I feel like it will be a strong chapter but very emotional, as Graedin is slowly isolated from his friend Brand by the backlash of the events at the end of Chapter 6. Could it be a misunderstanding, or is there truly a problem between the two? That's what we call a teaser.

I have also started story-boarding the major plot events on notecards so I can lay them out film-editing-style and find a good pace for the book. There are several intertwined plotlines and major goals of character development, and I realized that to make the book work, timing and spacing between revelations has to be fairly spread. The idea is for the climax to be set up by slowly revealing bits of information (like a mystery story) to the main characters as they concurrently learn how to deal with their own emotions in a large and sometimes hostile world. Accomplishing this is going to be tricky.