I have a writing complication/I made a mistake

A word from our sponsor:

The Breast Form Store Little Imperfections Big Rewards Sale Banner Ad (Save up to 50% off)
Printer-friendly version

Author: 

Blog About: 

So! In my last chapter of A World Without Me (chapter 2), I left some of the end off, as I thought I could incorporate it into the start of the next chapter, but I ended up going back to what was once a small paragraph and turning it into a huge 2,000 word section that doesn't fit at all with the start of the next chapter and it's really annoying me >.<
And I'm not sure what to do >.> I don't want to have it at the start of chapter 3 because, even though it's probably okay, I've wanted all the chapters to be self-contained and this would ruin that. It'd be like someone putting a cream onto a chocolate chip muffin! It's not right. I'd rather just have the muffin by itself, thank you very much. Stupid cream.

I was going to just add the story chunks to the end of chapter 2 but so many people have already read it that when chapter 3 comes up they'll have missed some important things. I was thinking of doing that and leaving a note at the start of chapter three about it, but then the readers would have to go back to chapter 2 and read some of what they've already read to get to the new thing.
But maybe that's fine and I'm worrying too much?
The other thing I thought of doing was having a chapter 2.5 and uploading it separately, as it is a fairly decent size. And then just leaving it there or in a couple of months incorporating it into chapter 2 and removing it? Or would just having a chapter 2.5 be fine? I've seen people do that before. I'm worried that people who've read the story might miss it or think it's not important, but I guess I can add a note to chapter 3 about reading it because it's important.
That seems like the best idea for now? Has anyone else been in a similar situation/seen a similar thing done?
Thankyou ^_^

Comments

Go with the Chapter 2.5

and when you publish it later, just mesh it back into Chapter 2.

Sephrena

Thankyou!

BrokenFox's picture

Thankyou!
I've decided to ad it to the end of chapter 2 though, I think that'll be the easiest/cleanest for the moment and I'll put an authors note at the start of chapter 3. The scene isn't hugely important so if people don't want to read it/or miss it then they'll just miss out on some small character moments and information about the competition that'll be explained later anyway. I think I just got too attached to it and thought it was more important than it was because I worked on it for the last two days :P

Not a fox

Thankyou so much to the

BrokenFox's picture

Thankyou so much to the people who messaged me! I didn't expect to get replies so soon ^_^
I added the new section at the end of chapter 2, underneath a Separator thing.
--SEPARATOR--
And I'll add an authors note at the start of chapter 3. I totally forgot things like the separator existed ^^ Ahh.
Now I can relax and go to bed. It's 3:40 in the morning over here >.> I worry way too much over silly thigns

Not a fox

cool

I was enjoying the story so far so this is just more to read

Don't be afraid to change aspects.

It is frustrating to me to see writers engaging in piteous self flagellation, having done so much of it myself, now I find it nauseating.

There is a writer that uses decimal chapter designations and it is so disconcerting to me that I stopped reading their work. Writers do use flashbacks and other manipulation of the point of view to get the story done. I've written some stories that approached 100k words and it is surprising to find when you are almost finished that you have some ideas that should rightly have gone down much earlier. I felt my only choice would be to explain it in the story and forge ahead. Writing is not perfect, and if it was it would be boring.

Gwen

A final thought

You have solved your immediate problem, but just consider this: Nobody is forcing you to number chapters the way you did.

There is no reason at all why what started out as Chapter 3 has to be Chapter 3 in the final story. Why cannot your new prose become Chapter 3 and your original 3 become 4?

Though you set your original chapter boundaries to suit the way you tell the story, there may be other ways to divide it up, maybe giving better results.

Until you actually post something, everything is fluid. Don't box yourself into corners that don't exist.

Penny