The Trials of Writing

So today, I think I finished up the current chapter, but will have to read through it tomorrow to see for certain. I'm expecting 7 more chapters in this book, but I have to say that the plot is moving much slower than I expected. Which got me to thinking (always a bad sign). [Aside: This is more of a writer ramble than a writing post, but that seems to be the main theme of my tips lately.]

I keep telling myself that this book is going too slowly, that it should be moving faster, that I'm spending too much time on this and that and the other thing (even though it's a first draft and I shouldn't be worried about that yet). But today I sat back and asked myself why I've felt that way through the whole novel, and why it doesn't seem to be speeding up, and I realized that what I'm doing is comparing this novel to the previous Throne of Amenkor books . . . and I shouldn't be doing that. If it were a continuation of the Throne books, then yes, I should be worried. But it's not. This is a new series, with new main characters, essentially a new "world" because it's not set on the Frigean coast, with new cultures and everything. And it's scope is much larger than the Throne books. They were focused on one person, then one city, then two cities in the region. This one has already traveled from one continent to another, and explored three different regions, and I've hit a few different cities, not all human in nature . . . so of course this one should be moving at a slower pace. It's exploring more, not just in setting and worldbuilding, but in characters as well. The Throne books were from Varis's POV, and she was very no-nonsense. She used short, clipped sentences, got down to the facts as fast as possible, and came to a quick decision on what to do about it for the most part. The new characters are different. One if very formal, so his sentences aren't clipped or short, but longer and drawn-out. The main character isn't as "active" as Varis, simply because his life doesn't demand it, so he doesn't use short sentences either. Shorter than the formal-dude, but not clipped. He doesn't use as big words as the formal-dude either.

But if you think about the different types of books out there, you can see the same thing happening. You've got the huge doorstoppers . . . but they're doorstoppers because the story and world demand that there be lots of words (for the most part; I realize there are exceptions, some rather bestselling exceptions even). And then there are thinner books (most of the urban fantasies pop to mind) because those worlds and characters don't need as much explanation. I mean, it's easy to say that the main character is a zit-faced teenager working at Starbucks to pay for his bicycle and have the reader get a rather good image, along with a few assumed character traits. But if you have to describe an Alvritshai lord with pale skin and angular cheekbones wearing a deep blue shirt with slashes of red showing in subtle cuts in the fabric and breeches with boots . . . I've already used twice as many words and I haven't given you a clue about the lord's character, or how it may be different from a human lord. That's going to take a little more work.

So, why am I so worried? I shouldn't be, and that's the point. Not even because this is a first draft. I shouldn't be worried because this isn't the same type of book as the Throne books, and I find that I keep struggling with that idea as I write. Am I going to have to cut words from this when I'm done? Oh, yeah, big time baby! But I doubt it comes in as trim as the Throne books in the end. In the word sense. If it has to be the same number of pages, then I'll have to cut some plot.