Writing Update

I "finished" Chapter 6 and by that I mean I have a working draft. It's not perfect, it will need to be rewritten, but it's done enough to move onto the next chapter. The first section of the book is chapters 1-6. Each chapter is in the perspective of a different character. When I rewrite, I expect there will be a lot of cutting (the first six chapters are 141 pages, with a lot of exposition and backstory) and moving stuff around. Some of the writing will need to come in later chapters, I can already tell. I expect to have three-four sections total of these rotating perspectives (depending on how much story I can get into each person's chapter; I'll see how that goes).

One of the tough things about writing while in an MFA program is pretty obvious and I think others have commented on it. It's hard to be in the creative process (writing), and at the same time, have to talk about your work as though it's finished. I've found that criticisms and critiques have really slowed me down at times, until I remember: I'm not done. I can fix some of those problems. Just keep going. So that's what I'm trying to do. Chapter 6 and the first part of the novel are too long, they need work, but for now I need to leave them alone and move on to the next chapter.