Dangerous Day Job

I’m almost through the slowest part of Oneiromancer. It’s just a few chapters, but they’re crucial for the main character’s development, so I’m forced to have a long period of relative inaction. Things are still going on, just not the wild action I’m fond of writing. The slow parts are always really hard for me because they’re the parts that need to be the smoothest. A fast-paced action scene needs polish too, but when I’m reading a book, the action scenes are often the scenes where I pay the least attention to the minor details. There’s usually something big going on to distract from smaller issues. During a slow scene though, every little hiccup threatens to shuck the reader’s (my) engagement in a heartbeat. I want the slow scenes to be just as important as the fast paced scenes without making them feel like a barrier between the reader and the ‘real’ story that should be going on. If I ever feel that way while reading something back I know I’ve gone wrong somewhere, and it’s always the slow scenes that end up feeling that way. Editing this part will be a nightmare because of that, and how important the scenes are. If I get these wrong then the book will just be plain bad. I guess I better go work on it.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley