ROW80 Round 1 - 8th Update

While I haven't got as much done in the way of adding word count done as I would have liked, I have nevertheless made some important headway on my novella. This has mainly taken the form of revisions to my outline and to what I had of chapter 1. I had already made some minor adjustments in response to feedback received from my writing workshop, but there was still a lot to be done (and there still is). I have started doing a more serious rewrite of this first chapter - including reducing the amount of characters introduced in this section and making them more believable - as well as adding in other bits that had previously been left out. It is now a complete chapter, though it still needs to be reworked. Chapter 2 didn't get much attention this week because I was labouring over chapter 1, so in a way I've failed one of my minor goals (I was hoping to have chapter 2 finished by this weekend).

Yesterday afternoon I discovered a major plot hole in my outline. I don't mean just a little inconsistency, I mean a gaping abyss of logic and reason so big I could probably drop all of Australia in there and no one would ever find it. Well, I guess it wasn't exactly a plot hole, but it was a clear case of a character only being somewhere at a certain time Because The Author Needs Them To Be. After throwing a bit of a tanty and indulging in some chocolate and energy drinks, I sat down and pulled my outline to bits, trying to work out how I could get around it. What I've come up with isn't perfect, but it's better than what was there before, and while trying to fix this plot hole, I managed to stumble across ideas/solutions for other, smaller plot holes (as well as discovering/introducing new ones :| *sigh*).

In light of the work I have undergone revising my outline and beginning to rewrite my first chapter, I have definitely decided to aim to get three chapters finished, and only to attempt the fourth if I have extra time at the end. I suppose I could possibly get four chapters done, but they would be rushed, and the quality would no doubt suffer; I'd rather get a bit less of it done but have it to a higher standard.

As usual, here is Judgemental Dog guilt-tripping me into writing:


To see how the other ROW80 participants are going, click here.

P.S. My Doctor Who sonic screwdriver keyring torch arrived on Friday. If I said I hadn't been pretending to unlock my car with it, I'd be lying ^_^