Let's Not Fight

When I was younger I was not very talkative. I tended to use a minimal amount of words and was never looking for a long conversation. Pratt, however, was constantly chattering when he was younger. Pratt tends to be significantly more outgoing and friendly. I tend to be a jerk. The result has been an ongoing joke in our creation of dialogue. Pratt creates a vibrant rain forest of spoken words, and I come in with my slash and burn technique. Between the two of us I hope we end up writing a conversation that feels real. So far the polished results are pleasing.

We are doing rewrites on the first third (or so) of Book 1. The Prologue and Chapter 1 were already quite polished and turned out to be pretty easy work. I actually enjoyed just reading them - adding a few minor adjustments as I went. It is rare that I am ever pleased with my own work. The fact that I was can only be because of Pratt.

Of course things have gotten hairier as we've pushed into the less polished chapters. They are all going to take a lot of work. I read one section in Chapter 2 that I had written and struggled to even make sense of it. That's seven consecutive paragraphs that need to be completely rewritten. I don't think I saw a salvageable sentence in there. Who could have guessed that finding meaning within words should not be like finding a needle in a haystack?

-Lio