This month, I’ve been trying to hone some of the worldbuilding. I’ve been doing research on different ways to mold the world to my plans for it. A few problems I’ve had with the worldbuilding seem to be on the cusp of getting resolved, but they continue to elude me for the moment.
Another area I’ve been working on is organizing and arranging the different plot point revelations (the payoffs in promise & payoff, if you will) throughout the story. The trick is to have information revealed where it has emotional punch, which often means waiting to reveal that information. In turn, this often restricts certain plot points or elements in characters’ relationships or moves them to later in the story. It’s a balancing act.
One big change I’ve been considering with the manuscript is adding in interludes with backstory snippets on the main character. I’m mostly convinced this is a prudent idea—the only thing that’s holding me back is that in many novels I’ve read, I find interludes annoying, but maybe that’s just me.
These interludes do provide a challenge when it comes to structuring major story moments. Currently, I have spots marked for three interludes happening at three points in time—but where the first interlude happened the longest ago, the second one the second longest ago, and the last one being the most recent. The first one was originally intended to be a piece of backstory I had already written (though I originally wrote it simply to help flesh out the character). However, I think its placement in the plot is too early in the story for some of the information it reveals, but not for other information. This is the dilemma. Do I rearrange the placement of the interludes or slightly change what the interlude is about?
At the moment, I’m inclined to do the latter. I think I’ve got an idea of what to do content-wise for that interlude, but we’ll see how that goes.
Other than that, I’ve got the second interlude written, and I’m quite pleased with it and how it fits within the whole of the story. And I’ve got an idea of what I want to do with the third one.
My editing jumps around from day to day depending on what I’m in the mood for, so I’m working on multiple parts of the manuscript at once. Normally, I don’t advocate writing based on your mood. If I waited to feel *inspired* or in the mood to write, I’d never finish any stories. But it seems to get me more motivated to write if I have options of what I write.
Finally I’ll mention the internal wiki I talked about in prior updates continues to come in super handy. If you are looking to build one for your own projects, check out wikidPad.
Okay, I think that’s all for this month’s update.
-Alex
Alex Sagittarius 