Progress on the novel has been slow in the past few weeks. One of the main reasons was the breakdown of my laptop – the very one I am using to write this post.
The other issue is something I had both anticipated but have also been caught by surprise by – the immensity of the project. When I was was editing the piece that I subsequently entered for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, I spent a fair bit of the time on resolving plot holes that had turned up while I was drafting the story.
Before I began editing, I thought the most difficult bit would be trying to cut out words to meet the limit of 5,000. That turned out to be easy to do with each draft. Even minutes before I eventually submitted my piece, I was still cutting out words from the piece. It ended up being more challenging trying to resolve all the plot holes within my little tale of terror.
And with the novel, it has been the same problem on an entirely different scale. Considering that I had outlined the entirety of the tale in writing, I was shocked at the pockmarked plot of my novel. It is almost enough to make me give up entirely.
Almost.
Resolving plot holes is one of the main challenges of pursuing a life in writing. It will not be easy, and I am not looking forward to it. I doubt I ever will. But this is what I signed up for – even if I might have underestimated the scale and intensity of the problem. I feel strong enough to deal with it.
One word at a time.
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