Tackling the problematic 3rd POV
The 3rd POV has been the most problematic of the three. This month, I seriously considered dropping it from the book, and not for the first time.
The outline for this POV changed so significantly from the previous draft that most of the previous scenes weren’t worth keeping. As a result, a lot of this felt like a first draft again. Writing completely new scenes.
Five scenes in, I didn’t like where it was going. I moved all of those scenes into my snippets folder and re-outlined the POV, losing 10,781 manuscript words for the month.
After starting over, seven scenes (12,515 words) in, I realized the tone was wrong. I adjusted the outline and took a first stab at rewriting the first scene. I’m happy with the direction for now.
These aren’t great patterns, but I’d rather find major structural and tone issues now than after I finish the draft.
Writing by hand
I’ve been struggling to get going recently. Staring at the screen, getting antsy and restless, distracting myself with just about anything. Eyes getting bleary and tired staring at the screen. Part of this was the broken 3rd POV, but not all of it.
I had treated myself to a new fountain pen recently. Since I had a renewed interest in handwriting, I thought, maybe I should try handwriting the next scene.
I opened the scene outline on my phone, turned Do Not Disturb on, and started writing. The new scene I’ve been struggling with just flowed. Now I’ve written two scenes with this method, and the process was so much faster, less of a struggle, and more enjoyable than writing at the keyboard. And transcribing the words to the computer gave me another chance to edit the scene.
While writing, new ideas for later scenes, worldbuilding, and characters flowed as well. I came up with a strong, moving moment for the POV 3 climax. I’m excited for it. And today, after transcribing the scene I wrote this morning, I felt energized enough to consider writing a second scene. Unheard of.
My previous issues with handwriting included pressing too hard, causing hand cramping and fatigue. The fountain pen’s wet nib solves this. Super messy handwriting is another issue, but I’ve been leaning into the fundamentals of cursive, which definitely helps. And I’ve been transcribing the words soon after writing them, so when the words flow faster than my hand can write, and my handwriting devolves into an illegible scrawl, I have a better chance of remembering what I had written.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the experience. I’ll see if it sticks. (Also, I may end up spending a lot more time at the keyboard soon, so having an alternate medium for writing is good.)
Plans for August and beyond
I have 14 more scenes to write to finish Draft 2.5, so if I continue my handwriting pace of a scene per day, I’ll finish mid-month. I know I’ll want to dive into Draft 3 right afterwards, altering the tone to match the first scene that I’ve already rewritten for each POV. As part of the new draft, I want to flesh out worldbuilding, characters, and fight scenes that are currently lacking. I’ll look at my outline and arcs with a critical eye. I’ll start tracking questions, promises, and reveals. Foreshadowing. Adjusting when and how I give the reader information. I’ll read my book as a whole, rather than 3 separate stories, and make changes as needed.
Once Draft 3 is complete, I imagine I’ll be ready to send the book out to beta readers and professional editors.
I’m going to leave differentiating character voices and reading the story out loud for later drafts, after the story is solid. Other writers might consider this the wrong order, but I see those as polish. Paint and decor once the foundation and load-bearing walls are in place.
Stats
If I extrapolate, I’m still on track for nearly 150k words (~500 pages). In draft 3 and beyond, I’ll need to trim ~20% of my word count to hit my goal of less than 120k words (~400 pages).