Editing Epic Fantasy, first revision pass
I let enough time lapse between finishing Part 2 of the story and moving on to refresh Part 3 that it seemed best to start over again. Tedious and a bit annoying, but I couldn't manage the last stretch without fresher context.
The divine pronoun is tricky to keep consistent. Found another couple in Part 1 that I'd mis-capitalised. Pacing and... spread is something else to look at. Originally I started this story with the intent of telling it in a very compact manner but it definitely spread out as the story went on. Don't know if I will be able to re-compress it, or if I should try. Am inclined not to unless something happens to change my mind.
Finally noticed (re-noticed?) potential genealogical plothole. Could address directly or implicitly. Waiting until reading all the way through in case something presents itself meanwhile.
I find I am still enjoying much of the first half of Part 2, which is probably a good sign. Also finding still more missing words, which is a bit embarrassing. Do need to spread the bit about Guy and Udoo further back, before Crangil's story.
Second half, still very tedious and in need of work. Some scenes need splitting, others should probably go entirely. Am hoping there is nothing in Part 3 worse than this. I am looking forward to cleaning it up, but daunted by the prospect. Hopefully what works here can be fitted into a tighter, cleaner story.
A lot of what was written here was written because I was pushing myself to 'just write' each day until I'd made my target, and can definitely do with being trimmed.
There are little things wrong with the narrative voice in later parts which I do not know how to describe - less showing, more telling, too embedded in the perspective of Arryn, maybe - but hopefully will be able to fix.
So far I think the real dramatic climax comes at the end of Part 2. I don't remember writing anything in Part 3 to match that peak. Hm.
And finally finished Part 2. Better get on to Part 3 right away. I dread how bad it may be.
Copy-pasting from OpenOffice.org to yWriter seems to have caused pervasive italics problems at the beginning of Part 3. Annoying.
Pause and slow laughter at that line. That's a good sign, unless my sense of humour is so perversely self-directed as to be useless to anyone else. Unlikely.
That was a weird scene. I suppose I have to decide if there's any value to keeping it. Not bad. Just... weird.
Main problems so far: bad writing and rushed scenes. Annoying, but should be fixable.
Ah, the plot developments of desperate writers. Confusingly written. So far looks like only clean-up is needed, not covering plot holes. Finding myself surprised by this final part of the story. Badly written, yes, but it has potential. There's story I'd not be ashamed of under there, I think.
Finally to the climax. I'm not buying it. This part is being too easy and deflates tension unsatisfactorily. There needs to be something else first, something to bridge the moral disjoint here, something to earn it.
That ended surprisingly well. Relatively speaking. May not have to change as much as I was expecting. That's change as in 'change what happens', not change as in 'change the writing to better writing'. Still plenty of that needed. Realised with the right perspective that plothole I mentioned up top doesn't need to be. Going to consider it 'solved' and leave it in the text for readers for reconcile, since by the end an answer seemed obvious to me.
Week done, next week I'd better start doing actual work on this thing. What are we doing?
- Reorganise the inn section so it is coherent
- Clean up the city plot
- Start the bit with Guy earlier
- Clean up the writing in general
