Status of the Novel, part 1

I’m working on my novel, currently titled The Waste, and it’s eating my brain.

Although it’s the best novel I’ve ever written, it sucks on an almost infinite level and so I’m very thoroughly going through it to see what is good, salvageable, re-writable and just plain old drek.

This week I am going through each scene, looking for conflict. I know not all conflict has to be bombings, or fleeing from the enemy, or anything outwardly dramatic, but even so there are some scenes that are just ‘tell the reader some stuff’ scenes, and there’s not a hint of conflict anywhere. Today I hope to finish going through Chapter 5, leaving 6 more chapters for the rest of the week.

Once I’m done with conflict, I’m going to look for characters to strengthen or cut. I have 50 characters (yes, I counted and wrote them all down) and that’s way too many for one short novel.

I hear the simple stuff gets easier as you keep writing. I hope so!