The Review Club Forum Discussion for Rob's (cdnsurfe..

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Hey Jeff,

Thanks for the compliment. I appreciate it. We're only 13,000 words into so far, so there's alot of ground to cover to get to the 80,000 to 100,000 words I need. The wonder is I'm still running with it when I've usually stopped because of the length. One thing that's helped conceptually for me is to think each chapter as a separate short story, linked together with a common theme and character. I've seen this approach used before and it works for me.

Cheers!

Rob

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Hey, I have no doubt you can do it. You have the same problem I've always had, and that's waxing and waning over every word and scene. You can get stuck. Just drive right through, telling yourself you can go back and fix it later. Cheers!

Rob

Yea, I like that approach, too - and not to get too materialistic, but I think it's the hot style on the market.

Hey Gabe, thanks for the comments. I appreciate the time you took to read it.

Cheers!

Rob

Hey C C, thanks for the detailed review on the first chapter. I agree with everything you had to say. I have to unravel those scenes and expand of them, as now that I'm stretching the length, I really need to develop up the secondary characters and other elements. I'm finding that an issue in chapter 3 that I have to go back to both chapter 1 and 2 to build up. I think I understand the flow and pacing of a novel now. It's quite different from short stories in that you have to fill out the characters, bring all the secondary characters to life and track them. They have to continue to have meaning in every scene they appear in (blood and flesh).

Very useful.

Cheers!

Rob

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Your comment is one of the reasons I feel I've got to run with this one. The narrative structure I've used here seems to have alot of people mentioning that they feel it's autobiographical, which it isn't. If it feels real, then I've achieved half the battle.

Cheers!

Rob

Rob,

Glad I could be helpful. One of the other things to remember about a novel is that you have a lot more time. You don't have to get everything into a short space, don't have to wrap everything up in a neat little bow. The first chapter is SO full of stuff, and you cut a lot of it shorter than you might want to because it started as flash, but you've got room to play now - take advantage of it!

-cc