The WIP Update

Photo: Regina, from the WIP

A couple of notes . . . first of all, the "Real Issues in Christian fiction" list is growing, so you might want to keep checking it. We write about real life, not usually to address a specific issue, but because the issues are THERE . . . as they are in life. Writers reflect the world we live in, and these are the issues we humans face.

THE ELEVATOR is coming. I'm either on the second or third draft, depending upon how you count (I wrote about half and started over, so I suppose this is really the second-and-a-half draft.) I'm at that stage where I know where the problems are--one character is pitifully underdeveloped, certain backstory passages have to go while more pivotal ones need to be included, and I still need to work on some technical aspects of the elevator. I also need to go back and check the senses--I like to include at least three in each scene (something to see, hear, taste, touch, or smell)--and I need to make sure that the interior monologue and even the vocabulary of each scene fits the character.

Gina is highly educated and rather literary--a bit of an elitist, actually.
Michelle is from West Virginia, and though she has polished herself to a shine, occasionally she slips back into mountain vernacular.
Isabel is Mexican and English is her second language. One tip I've learned--go easy on the contractions when you're writing dialogue/thoughts for folks who have English as a second language. It helps make the language seem just a little stilted.

In any case, even though this is only a 2.5 draft, I am still occasionally staring at one sentence for ten minutes, rewriting it, weighing it, trying on all kinds of words until I find the perfect fit. It's a 15-page a day pace, and I'm taking every available minute to do those 15 pages.

Now, time to fire up the computer so it can read yesterday's pages to me. My ear picks up a lot that my eye misses.

P.S. One note from the Bible reading challenge (Yep, I'm still on schedule): Is that dismembered concubine story not one of the strangest in the Bible?

Angie