Back in May I posted about how it was interesting how the novel was shaping up. The first scene of each viewpoint established the character in his society. The second scene of each viewpoint established how the character’s personal conflict related to the main conflict. I wasn’t sure how this was working at the time, but now I can report on it.

It wasn’t working. As I’ve been trying to get back into the novel, I’ve been reading what I wrote back in May and the first part of June (can you believe that I wrote 80k words in about a month?) In each case, each character’s first scene is expendable because I infodumped for however-many-thousand words. The second scene was almost always a better introduction–and more exciting too.

What’s more frustrating with the book is realizing how much I’m going to have to rewrite because I kept losing focus of the characters’ goals. The plotlines for some of the characters began to get uninteresting as I accidentally meandered in some of the chapters, seeking for the character’s purpose in the story.

All in all, the book is a trainwreck right now. I went home last night with a headache and a determination. Even though I’m going to have to cut at least half of what I wrote in May, I’m still trucking ahead. There’s still a lot in this book that I like and is spurring me on to finish it.