reflections on revision
Dec. 2nd, 2019 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliMy characters are not in my confidence.
A wise thing to remember. Especially when I had actually put in one character's mouth a fair innocuous explanation for their problem. The other character has to persuade him to assume they are in mortal danger, even with all the potential for accidents.
Which, of course, it is. But I know that. They don't. Even the one persuading merely knows it is very likely, and so does the one being persuaded. They are just considering suitable tactics. Fortunately, they know spells that could take out attackers without harming innocent bystanders.
But such are the charms of revision. Along with realizing that you didn't bother to make it clear to the reader where events happened. Or exactly what happened -- even if a character would say "A monster appeared" whether it teleported out of nowhere, or became clear as a cloud of dust settled, or raised its head over the buildings so he could see it, his point of view will actually see it.
Also, whether I broke it sanely into chapters. I can be very sloppy about those.
A wise thing to remember. Especially when I had actually put in one character's mouth a fair innocuous explanation for their problem. The other character has to persuade him to assume they are in mortal danger, even with all the potential for accidents.
Which, of course, it is. But I know that. They don't. Even the one persuading merely knows it is very likely, and so does the one being persuaded. They are just considering suitable tactics. Fortunately, they know spells that could take out attackers without harming innocent bystanders.
But such are the charms of revision. Along with realizing that you didn't bother to make it clear to the reader where events happened. Or exactly what happened -- even if a character would say "A monster appeared" whether it teleported out of nowhere, or became clear as a cloud of dust settled, or raised its head over the buildings so he could see it, his point of view will actually see it.
Also, whether I broke it sanely into chapters. I can be very sloppy about those.