quite busy today

Have been quite busy today, working hard on TechnoGothic, refining and improving and generally breathing the breath of Portia Da Costa into the rough and rather weak first rough draft. Sometimes stuff comes out right, straight out of the gate... other times, it's total pooh, and really needs strong-arming into some kind of shape. Refining usually means cutting out a load of superfluous wordage crud, and phraseology that distances the reader from the book and from the characters... and making the writing more direct, and immediate, so that the reader is 'in' the character more. This is usually easier in first person, and slightly harder in third. TechnoGothic is third person, so I can do big, big chunks in Alexander's POV... I know some people have ventured into dual first person, but after a lot of deliberation I find that's not for me, because most times when I read it, I find it confusing, so God alone knows what would happen if I tried to write it! It would turn into the biggest jumble of the century and be v. embarrassing. I'm not a literary or experimental writer... I just like to stay in the comfort zone of entertainment, and write a nice luvvyduv style romance story, with *lots* of heart and an equal amount of rumpy pumpy shagnasticality... :)

So, we're in third person, so yours truly has to work double hard to ensure that the writing seems almost as intimate as if it was in first! I think I'm getting it, and I like my hero and heroine much better after I've worked them over... In the first draft they were both far to sorry for themselves and full of self disgust over various issues, and now they accept their lots much better. In fact Robyn is quite a cheerful soul in the new version, and very philosophical... Alexander is still a bit of grouch, but he's an interesting grouch... and he's got to be a bit of one because he's Beast to her Beauty... only without the fur, the snout and the tail!

I think this could be a fun book to write if some lovely editor will give it a chance... it's got lots going for it and it's full of contrasts. Full of darks and lights, happiness and poignancy, weak and strong, chubby and thin... All of human life is there... well, some of it...

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Telly: afternoon movies
Chocolate: Maya Gold
Mood: quite positive
Writing: editing TechnoGothic
Reading: ComputerActive
RSI: reasonable