Thursday, August 19, 2010

My Novel's Journey: Rediscovering Discovery

Well, I finally did it today. I finished reading the 80,000 words I have written on my Catholic sci-fi novel, DISCOVERY. I know what works and what doesn't and it really comes down to fixing the first half so that it dances with the second half. That means character development, minor conflicts during the trip out to the Kuiper Belt that foreshadow the crises when they explore the ship, and researching some great quotes for Sister Ann to lob off that are perfect for the situation as she understands it--and does she ever understand!--but that confuse everyone else. It also means some re-constructive surgery, then a really good polish.

Now, I have to decide how to best go about this. Should I outline? Cut the manuscript into pieces and play with them like a puzzle? Scrap the whole thing and start over armed with the knowledge of what I've written?

I'm not sure, and tomorrow, Steven gets his wisdom teeth pulled, and Rob took the day off. Not going to be doing a lot of writing this weekend. However, Monday, the kids go to school, and thanks to a different schedule and the fact that they have buses, I will have an extra couple of hours to work during the school day. I'll work a plan this weekend, and Monday start. I'll let you know how it's going!

Incidentally, I'm miffed at StarGate: Universe (aka StarGate: Whinyverse) for naming their ship Discovery. I'm wondering if I really have to change mine. For the record, I came up with it long before the show.

1 comment:

Walt said...

Keep "Discovery." After all, the British Admiralty beat both of you to it with eleven ships and one Canadian naval base. As I remember, some squid named James Cook (as opposed to James Kirk) skippered one of them about the time of our eighteenth century unpleasantness with them.