I now have 2,315 words on the re-restarted Rukan and am near to finishing the last scene of chapter one. I am tentatively excited. I might renew my membership to the OWW once I get a bit further in and post some of it for feedback. I’d like to know if it’s a good start in other writers’ eyes.
I’m trying to avoid too much exposition. (You would’ve heard of “show not tell”, yeah?) It’s something to do with using present tense, or maybe it only just occurred to me now that it’s super important, for some reason. But part of why I’m going slowly & carefully is thinking about how to reveal information in dialogue & relationships & action, instead of just stating it.
And that’s an interesting challenge. Where I wanted to write — Masozi is a couran child, like the new princess — I could not. I must slide this detail in somewhere else. And in particular it is challenging to build a world without telling the reader all about it (What is a couran child? Why, let me tell you in this distracting slow little paragraph here while you forget what the characters were just saying to each other.)
I’m a bit concerned the writing is light on scenery. (GOD I LOVE SCENERY. As a reader, it’s really important to me to be able to see the story in my mind.) But not too concerned. I don’t think it is majorly difficult to slot scenery in later, if you need to. A detail here & there to bring a world to life.
So I’m feeling better now. Latest writer angsty freak out has passed. At least for this week. Back to your regularly scheduled program, thanks.
