Monday, December 20, 2010

In hindsight...

So, I just recently got my Createspace copy of my NaNo novel and flipping through it and thinking back on it, there are many things I both like and dislike about it. (For the interested, Glass and Salt can be found in all its unedited NaNotastic glory here.)

Things I like:

- I like the narrative structure. I have three different kinds of narration: a main 1st person narrator (Chevy), a secondary 3rd person narrator (Ian) and a sort of interlude narration that is fashioned after simplistic fairy-tale type storytelling. I like the way it works. I might be using something similar for my hedgehog project (yay for blatantly stealing from myself!).

- I like Chevy's voice. It's like my homage to Mal from Firefly. I didn't mean it to be, but as I read it, I am reminded of our favorite space western captain.













(Because we all know our favorite pirate captain is Barbossa.)

- I like the ending. It comes out of nowhere, involves the death of innocent zombies and really resolves none of Chevy and Mel's problems I'd been hinting at as if they were important. I have no real basis in my love for it. I love it anyway. 

Things I don't like:

- I don't like how I kept forgetting that Chevy was claustrophobic. I mean, for real, you would think that would come up a few more times. But it doesn't. Because I forgot about it.

- I don't like how angsty it got, with a lot of coming and going without doing anything. It's like I couldn't bring myself to actually make something happen (I think that's why I like the ending, because I finally bit the bullet, stopped trying to make the characters resolve their differences when they clearly weren't interested in doing so and instead just proceeded to eliminate the problems by lopping their heads off - literally in some cases). 

- I don't like that I forgot to align the right edges of the text in my printed copy. Oh well. Each year, the Createspace copy gets a bit better-looking. Next year (if they do it again next year), it will be that much more awesome.

2 comments:

  1. I've just ordered my proof copy, first time!! I'm pretty excited about receiving it, though I know it'll probably take a while now with Christmas coming up :)

    I'm worried my formatting will be wrong, even though I did what the instructions said. I found the instructions not quite "Book formatting for Dummies" enough ;)

    Is it easier reading your story in book format? i.e. not on the computer or on printed out pages. Do mistakes become more glaring?

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  2. To be really, really honest, I wouldn't know. I don't usually read my book format books to look for errors, but just to enjoy/puke at my NaNo attempts when I feel nostalgic.

    In terms of printed vs screen though, it is much easier to pick out mistakes on a printed page than on a screen.

    Hey, I'm sure the formatting will be fine. And plus, it'll get better as you figure it out, so long as they continue the offer.

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