At this point it’s not so much editing but total rewriting.  I’m at half the pages in the second draft than I was in the first and I’m deleting entire chapters instead of just adding bits and pieces or tweaking.  This is what happens when you realize as you read back over your work that the timing of your story is all wrong and needs to be shifted.  It’s a lot easier to shift, say, Legos, than it is to shift a storyline.  So that’s what I’m doing.  I’m bringing Sabina much more into the story than she was (and she’s the MC, yeah, I know), making more events current than passive, extending the timeline so the relationships can be substantiated and moving the entire story back six months so the ending coincides with a major holiday in the kingdom.

I’m realizing, though, that I’m having some trouble with the characters’ interactions, especially the relationship development.  I’m finding it hard to build it up slowly (the romantic relationships) and have the nuances be subtle, or what I see as subtle, like it would be in real life.  But Ketin, Mic, Cab, Talem and Pyle are coming into their own as characters.  I’m struggling a little bit with Lania.  She showed me an awesome part of herself at the beginning of the story but how she’s acting now doesn’t really fit that first part.  She could be screwing with me or she could be saying I’m this and that.  I have no idea.  She’s a difficult one.  Bettis isn’t really even in the picture yet but I’m thinking she will be, just not as her normal self.

I can’t remember if I mentioned these characters (other than Sabina and Cab) in prior posts but they’re all sort of central to the Diamond Crier plot.  Sabina’s the MC, Mic’s her love interest (subtle love interest), Cab and Lania come in a pretty close second, Ketin is the catalyst and Pyle and Bettis are acting as sort of fillers but their changes in character will be needed for the plot.  There’s also Fash, Barloh, Gorvish, Mein, Torle and Jaen (not to mention Jeviar and his wife, Lana) but I don’t need to get into them right now.  They’re a lot easier for me to work with.

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