Day 60: Retrospective Pt. 2

I ended up looking over the first 20 posts, and most of them weren't really all that enlightening. Many were my plans that haven't really changed much, the post schedule for example, and others didn't have much substance to dig into. That's ok by me, it's just a blog. Not every post needs to be as deep as possible. There were a few posts I want to dig into, namely the two posts on pacing, and the Frankenstein first impressions. I think these will be most useful to review because I still struggle to get my pacing down (and based on the posts I think I know why) and I just like Frankenstein, so a revisit can't hurt. Let's dive in!

The issue I've identified with my pacing is not something I covered in the pacing posts. In those posts I largely only discussed the minute pacing of paragraphs and sentences strung together, and failed to properly link the pace at a small scale to the pace at a larger scale. When I read back my work, the chapters flow decently enough individually, but I can't help but feel like the overall story is rushed. I'm having a lot of trouble filling in the between moments where tension can build, and it makes it feel like everything is just kinda happening and there's not much build up to any of those events. Thing is, I don't know how to solve the issue. Clearly there is a gap in my knowledge that I'll need to fill. I guess I have some reading to do over the weekend.

The Frankenstein first impressions are interesting because my overall opinion about the book didn't change at all even though the second half took me completely by surprise. I didn't expect to get so much the monster's point of view, but after finishing the book, I don't think Shelley could have done it any differently. It had a perfect balance between the perspectives of Victor and the monster, and while Victor played a less active role than I thought he would (being mostly just a victim to the monster), I think he was still a relatable and admirable character in his own way. So was the monster, equally so in fact, and it makes me feel like the most compelling antagonists are probably the ones that are within a hair's breadth of being the protagonist.

I bet I could learn a thing or two about pacing from this book while I'm thinking about it. Victor's entire childhood and adolescence is spent building toward his creation of the monster. The details and events that Shelley stops to dwell on each contribute (in big and small ways) to his conception of Frankenstein. I think it can give me some clues about how to create a sense of rhythm throughout the story rather than only in a line by line sense.

Anyway, those were my thoughts on the first posts I made. Next month I'll look over the next 20 posts and find something to pick at. Have a good weekend!

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley