Well, the last several months have been flooded with activity; new boss with new directives and way of doing things, followed by a busy season that sees increased activity across the board. In all that, I somehow find time to review and edit the first book of the Ochra series, with a view to significantly reducing the word count, as well as cleaning up the syntax. This chore isn't made any easier by the bloated manuscript as it began - 181k words, down to over 120k. I'm now into the deep editting, cutting unecessary portions and cleaning things up in general to get under 100k.
Well, somewhere in there, I think I went and found my "voice."
This elusive term, every so often evident as a slap upside head in published authors’ works, seems to be really drawing out the worthy parts of my text. I'm dropping whole sections of superfluous and silly writing. Works like classic Lord of the Rings trilogy, the George R.R. Martin A Song of Fire and Ice series, Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionovar Tapestry, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games all have a readily identifiable voice, the style that catches the reader and hooks them in.
Four chapters into it and things started flying! I am finally writing what I want to say, how I wish to say it. It is finally showing instead of telling. What was once bloated and ponderous, now moves and engages <insert snappy fingers>. Sixteen chapters down, another 16 or so to go.....
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