I've completed a clean-up of Hellfire.
The Patch Notes:
- Ironed out inconsistencies in the early stages of the story to match the changes I made later on.
- Plot block 2 fits a lot better now (it was written on the fly as jumping straight to plot block 3 was moving things along too quickly. It showed).
- I've removed my accidental 'comments'. For some reason, when I copy from Word it includes all comments I'd attached to the document, so there were random cut paragraphs and notes that completely messed up chapters. If I've missed any, just point them out.
- I've taken on board criticisms, especially during plot block 4, which I was aware was going to be a problem, I seem to struggle writing that sort of drama smoothly first time. Chapters 45-49 have had some major work to remove repetitions and iron out the flow of Susan's adjustment.
- Dialogues have been tweaked. I wasn’t putting across character intentions well enough and it was frustrating some readers.
- Sorted out some word repetitions and sentence structures, but won't have fixed them all. That level of combing isn't worth it for me for a document this size that's written for fun.
- I've done some major work to Plot Block 5. Susan and Lucius are more united, Collette has been entirely removed and replaced with Eva as I felt she fit in better and removed unnecessary drama, and I've cut out a fair bit of content to have the plot move faster and smoother. I think roughly 10,000 words, maybe more, have been removed with some plot tweaks here and there. I’ve also cleaned the writing up – you can tell I wasn’t very well when writing these chapters, oh my gosh. Sentences suddenly weren’t making sense.
I likely won't be touching Hellfire for a while now but if people raise an issue, I'll look into editing certain sections.
Thanks for the help to anyone who left comments, negative or positive. I can't improve my chaotic first drafts without people pointing out problems or things they like.
