As you can see in the bargraph at the top of the page, revision for the novel has started.

I’ve done the prologue and 2 chapters with varying success : for the prologue, very minor revisions were done, as it’s a chapter that I already revised before, I only had to correct some of the language. I also put some notes in the margin, mainly things that have to be explained later in the book. After revision, I thought that exposition was handled rather well here, so I’m happy.

For chapter 1, I had begun (as with the prologue) by making notes. One of those notes was asking what the hell two big paragraphs were doing here; those were reflexions on the protagonist’s childhood – certainly important story elements here, but nothing really relevant to that scene. The only thing those two paragraphs brought was introducing the character that speaks shortly after them. So, I cut out those two big paragraphs (522 words) and replaced them with a few words after the character speaks. That allows the story to flow more naturally; I’ll have to reintroduce the cut elements later, but for now, that was too much exposition early on.

chapter 2 needed some reworkings also, mainly to show a more human side of the antagonist. I hope I didn’t push too far as for now, his primary objective has been largely sent to the background. I hope that pleases alpha reader who hates this character.

I have to find a more unified way to handle the revision process : 3 chapters done and 3 processes…

One final note : I have done a comparative outline of story elements in each chapter for each of the 4 main characters. I now know where all the story arcs begin and end. The problem now is what to do with all that information? I won’t have to care for that until act 2, but maybe there is a new scene to write somewhere (or several to cut out) in order for the story elements to come together at the right time. We’ll see.

On that note : writing is back!