Adventures in Sage-Land

[osprey_archer]

Yet again I am trying to rewrite the novel about Sage and her three best friends in their senior year of high school as they apply to college, bake snickerdoodles, study calculus, and discuss whether or not niceness is for suckers.

I'm hoping that now that I have Reciprocity under my belt, I will be better able to cope with the multiplicity of subplots and the sheer sprawling size of the thing. It's not, for a novel, actually that long - it's about 60,000 now, and I'm hoping it will clock in around 80,000 when I'm done - but the plot is very, how shall I put this, diffuse.

The first half is actually pretty solid. The second half is a mess, and I had to rip out an appalling percentage of it, including an entire subplot about Sage's budding friendship-oh-wait-now-that-I'm-getting-to-know-you-I-think-I-don't-like-you with Geneva, which gobbled up page time without offering much of anything in return. I don't think I need to get rid of the rest of it, but the pacing is off and I'm not sure how to fix it.

Would anyone be interested in reading the first half? I think I may have reached the point where I need to talk it over with someone who knows the story.

Comments

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

How about I wait to send it to you until I've got the plot and structure hammered out, then? I'll need a "having feelings and staring at objects" beta later on, once the story's all done, and it will be better if that beta is someone who will see it with fresh eyes.

[vcmw]

That sounds lovely! When you get to that point, let me know if/how I can be helpful.