With this new rewrite, I choose to cut the first chapter short, dedicating only a single scene to it, whereas before it had three, largely disconnected scenes, which made it quite long. That, alongside with me wanting to stick with three cycling Point-of-View characters, made the second chapter a bit trick to write on. But as I cut the first chapter down to a third, the second chapter can easily be following scene but from the next PoV.

I also wasn’t happy with the first chapter, it felt, out of place in this new perspective of the setting. But it is a scene that I really do have to keep, it is, after all, what originate the whole story to begin with.

Then it struck me, I can do it, from the second character PoV. Completely changing who starts the story. And it fits. There is also a massive plus to it, I can use this one scene to write something I often struggle to write into the story: a male character wearing a skirt. I.e.: crossdressing.

I seldom ever describe the characters appearances and choice of wardrobe. I don’t have to give them features that are not needed, only a few details, wrinkled, chiselled, etc; leaving most to the readers imagination. But in this rewrite, I had the PoV character looking up, “past her skirt and stern face, beyond the clouds and the reach of the city’s light, into the blackness of the night sky above.”

By changing the PoV character, I will also change the second character in this scene, and now it has become “past his skirt …”.

The downside of it, I just threw out everything I ever written before. This is not a minor change, this is major.

#Writing #WritingCommunity #Crossdress