eimarra | Entries tagged with nano

It sounds so lovely. We get better with practice. The more we write, the more we edit, the better we get.

It has its downside, though.

Earlier this year, I edited (rather too quickly, I'd say) my 2004 NaNo project, Christmas Tree Farm Murders. Both Val and

bonniers critted it for me.

Five years.

Having read through both of their crits, I can say that the best option for this book might be to start a new file and rewrite it from scratch. I've improved a lot in the past five years, and a new draft would need a lot less work than the editing that the current one needs.

I find this depressing. Not that I've improved -- that's good. But I've already written this, and I don't want to start over. So am I better served chopping it to bits and effectively rewriting each scene and adding new ones anyway, redrafting it from scratch, or moving on to something else entirely?

I don't know.

No decision will be made this week. I was, however, planning to edit for October. If I'm not working on Christmas Tree Farm, I suppose that means diving into the hard work for Pepper's edit. At least that's only two years old.

Edit: For the record, I'm not complaining about their crits. They were both spot on.

Current Mood: confused

. . . specifically, the knowledge of magic and magical creatures.

Three basic models exist that I can think of:

1) Only the select few know that they don't live in a mundane world. Examples include Buffy and Dresden Files (by Jim Butcher).

2) The truth is out, and everyone knows that there are non-humans out there. Examples include Laurell K. Hamilton's work, both her Anita Blake and Merry Gentry novels.

3) The truth is sort of out there, but not necessarily all of the truth. Mercy Thompson's world (by Patricia Briggs) is a good example of this.

I'm starting up my revision of Witchy Woman (aka Pepper, aka NaNo 2007), and it has occurred to me that I'm not sure which model holds true. Having done the read-through, it seems that the concept of magic is not foreign to everyone, but even those who've heard of its existence don't believe in it. Mostly. But there are bits where no ones heard of it. So I need to make it consistent, and to do that, I need to decide what the truth for Pepper's world is.

I'm hoping for feedback here: Are there models I've missed? Do you think some models intrinsically work better than others? Do you have a favorite type you like to read (or write)?

Thanks!

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Please note that examples are representative only. I could've included many others, such as T. A. Pratt's Marla Mason books,

robgoodfella's Cal Leandros books, etc., etc., etc. You want detailed lists, go see