Tight Writing

I've been really happy with this sci-fi book I've been writing. As you can probably tell from past posts. After speaking with my teacher on Wednesday, I worked out possible solutions to issues I was having.

One issue I was having was whether or not to have a villain. The book is primarily about survival in a hostile environment. But my teacher proposed the question of how did the world get this way, and I decided that I did in fact need a villain.

So I spent all of Wednesday night creating two villains. And I'm extremely happy with the results. There will be lots of deception/twists. Things won't be as they appear. And my villains will juxtapose nicely with my main character.

So today, I spent a good four hours in the library doing something I've NEVER done before. I took every scene I'd written so far, and completely mixed them around and re-ordered them. I created a new outline, moved things around, cut things, and wrote new stuff to fill in the seams. The result is even better than I imagined. It almost feels like I didn't write it because I couldn't possibly have made things fit together that way.

I'm just thinking back to how I wrote before this summer... Not that it was bad, just not as deep. Not as complex. I couldn't have written this story. This story is so tight, and everything I've written before seems loose by comparison.

I wish I could post more details about the story, but I can't if I want it to be published. But if anyone wants to be a test reader later on in the process, let me know ;)