Pacing yourself

(Oh har, har. I do love my puns. That is one of the reasons why people avoid me at parties.)

Phew. The house is unpacked and organised. The removal men have picked up the recycling and taken it away, which means no more box forts but much more floor space - a fair trade. Now we have some time to breathe and concentrate on other things. Quite apart from having fun with my mum, for me this means working on the projects that have been patiently lining up over the past couple of days, standing with their hands neatly folded and their shoes shining, ready for inspection. There are articles (some paid - hooray!); short stories; the YA novel (which will probably remain with its hands folded until Nanowrimo begins); and, of course, Current Book, which needs the most concentrated attention.

Ha! Concentrated attention. Not likely right now. Can't even remember what the words mean. Intermittent dabbling is more my thing this week.

Anyway.

I am concentrating on pacing at this stage of the revision process. I blogged earlier this year about slowing down, getting deeper into the story, making it richer and adding more depth. Pacing is a big part of this. It's not that I'm trying to draw the story out or make it longer and more complex just for the sake of it, but I do think that this particular book calls for a greater complexity of plot threads and more layers of character development than the last one did. I've spent the last couple of days trying to get the rhythm of the story right - reading through the whole thing and slowing down or speeding up where necessary. I mark passages where I feel I need to take more time and add more detail - and there's the odd new chapter needed as well, to even out the pace and spend more time with certain characters and sub-plots. Getting there!

Blogging should return to normal now, though - thanks for all your comments! And there's a vintage giveaway coming soon, too.