The easy part is done

Yesterday, I bulldozed through composition of the final chapters of Seeing the Crooked Lines (SCL) in a 20-hour marathon writing session, and now have a completed draft manuscript of the novel.

Yay, me!

I’m not happy with it.

It’s shorter than I wanted — 71,000 words. A little longer than Great Purpose, but not substantially so. Some of the passages read a little thin. They need more atmosphere and setting establishment. Other passages go too fast, and some are too slow. Their pacing needs tuning and refinement. Some parts, on second reading, are just too angsty and moody. They need more emotional subtlety. And the ending, while it hits the notes I had originally envisioned, doesn’t land with the emotional punch I was hoping to capture.

It needs more work.

The Lovely Jane suggested I set it aside for a while and let it simmer. I did this for Great Purpose and it is good advice. Stepping back for a little while and getting reoriented in the Real World before reviewing the story with fresh eyes should help me get enough emotional separation from the words to do the editing without feeling like I’m ripping apart my newborn child.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, writing is easy, but editing is hard. And editing this new manuscript will almost certainly feel a lot different from the first. SCL is an entire story told in close third-person perspective on one character alone, where Great Purpose‍ ‍was told from multiple character perspectives as the plot dictated. More things happen in Great Purpose. In SCL, most of the “action” takes place in Father Karl Becker’s head. SCL is a more emotional story, told from the perspective of someone who controls their emotions very carefully. It’s been a challenge to stay within that constraint and still make the prose compelling, and I see several places in the novel where this can be improved.

Is it a good story?

I vacillate on this question. SCL is a very different story, that much is certain. It’s a spiritual journey with a mystery spine, leading to a big emotional hinge and a gradual revelation about how God actually works in the ordinary world. It’s not a commercial whodunit, nor is it the miraculous crescendo of Great Purpose — it’s very much a slower burn and an introspective story of a man struggling to find divine truth in the world. It won’t appeal to everyone, I am sure.

But I really like Becker.

Father Karl Becker has become a favorite character of mine. I initially created him to fill the role of the wise sage in Great Purpose, but ended up establishing an interesting backstory for him — one that I felt compelled to explore further. Now, he’s featured in the novella Angel in the Room (which you can download for free here), and the main character in Seeing the Crooked Lines. We will see more of him in the next book in The Modern Miracles Series, tentatively titled The Fire We Carry. (I hope to publish that one in early 202 7.) Becker may very well end up as the common thread for the entire series, not by design, but because of his utility.

SCL sets up Becker well for Great Purpose, so the new novel is a success in that regard. That alone should make it worth reading.

Regardless, I think I can make it better. The easy part is done. Now comes the messy, much more difficult editing process. If it goes well, SCL will be published in November. Wish me luck.