Novel Revisions

I wrote Chamber in November as part of the NaNoWriMo contest. I got to 50,000 words and completed the story successfully, which was awesome. But now I've come to the difficult part... I'm actually trying to make it good.

My original thought was to highlight the problems and rewrite sections as it was needed. Instead, I've almost completely junked the original novel, and am rewriting it completely.

It's, hopefully, still going to be the same story. It features Jason, a down-on-his-luck artist who works as a teleoperator in Chicago. Reality starts falling apart for him, and he's not sure if it's him or reality which is going crazy. In the rough draft, the question is too obviously answered, due to unnecessary changes in perspective, which added complexity but didn't enhance the story.

This time around, I'm focused much more on who Jason is, what his motivations are, and how things are appearing from his perspective. It is enhancing the feel of the novel in a way that's noticeable even to me... Which is good.

When I wrote Chamber back in November, I was going for the distance. This time, I'm actually attempting to create a good story. I'm writing much more slowly, but the story is much better. It's also, unfortunately, threatening to go off in a direction completely different than the rough draft. If it does that, I'll be flying blind, which may cause me to stall.

I don't want to stall.
I REALLY don't want to stall.

I'll keep posting, simply because it'll mean I'll be thinking about it.
--Joe