Writing Report February 6, 2021

The current work in progress, the big project I’ve been planning for close to a decade, is progressing nicely. 

I just topped the 62,000 word mark and am about 55-60% of the way through the story and it’s progressing nicely.

This is the first draft, and I anticipate at least one full second draft and then a polish (and a polish of the polish after beta reader feedback) before it’s ready to go out, but I’m trying to maintain a consistent tone for the book.

Tone is a topic that doesn’t get discussed frequently re the craft of writing and this WIP is a good example of how important it can be.

Without giving too much away, the WIP is a contemporary social satire.  The subject material could be handled in a variety of ways, but I’m aiming for a G-rated approach since I can play a lot of humor off the various circumlocutions to avoid going into R-rated territory.

I’m pretty happy with the consistency so far but last night, after clocking in a total of 3,253 words for the day, I went to bed thinking I’d done a pretty good job, then I started thinking about two interrelated scenes I’d written, then I started thinking about the imagery and the language used…

…and realized my heretofore G-rated material just bumped up to PG13.

In a word:  %@#&!!!

It’s not a matter of self-censorship but self-editing.

The two scenes work in and of themselves and the characters say some funny dialog, but they’re too jarring in tone from what came before.

So tonight I’m going to need to go back and revisit those two scenes, find some way of keeping the plot points they need to convey but changing the dynamics of the scene so they don’t take us into territory we don’t want to visit.

And don’t think about suggesting I go back and sprinkle in a few words here and there to raise the rest of the story to PG13 levels; it doesn’t work that way.  By deliberately approaching the material at a G-rated level, I’m allowed to construct a tale that focuses on a larger point I’m trying to make without a lot of other variables coming into play.  My core conceit tells one story at the G level, another at PG13, a third at R, and if I dared venture into NC17 territory, one that would be the complete opposite of what I’m aiming for now.

© Buzz Dixon