Saturday, March 5, 2011

The Real Chapter One is Shaping Up

So I got home from the gym, and decided that I wanted to work on Chapter One. My fiance had to work today so I figured I ought to take advantage of the silence while I could, and once I started going I started really going.

It's a little bit difficult to take an action scene that you can see in your head, and put it in to words, but it's also pretty fun. If the finished product allows the reader to experience the scene the way that it unfolded in my head then I have done my job. I really think that I achieved that with my first scene in Chapter One, probably more so than the action in the prologue. I plan to go back and touch up the prologue, but I am going to save that for the first revision when I am done. I want to knock out the whole book in it's most raw and visceral form before I fret over the details. I would rather have four pretty good chapters that need a little work then one really good chapter that's completely finished.

Word count so far today is 1,330. That's the most so far. I thought about writing the last scene in the chapter, but I already have notes on what I want to happen in it so it's not as though I am going to forget what I wanted to do. Besides, it's nice to take a break every once in a while, and my fiance will be home soon. It also frees me up to ask you guys a question.

What is it about a book that makes you not want to put it down? We've all been there where you just can't seem to stop reading a book, and before you know it it's 4 am and you've read half of the book. Leave a comment with your answer.

3 comments:

  1. Being able to visualize what I'm reading as I'm reading it. I think that's why "deeper" books are more boring to people because the words can't always be visualized.

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  2. I like the cliffhanger effect, but not necessarily resolved in the next chapter. Some things need to be resolved sooner than later to keep me satisfied, but some long term cliffhangers are good.

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  3. Thanks for the comments guys.

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