About a third through the latter, which should be enough to send to the editor, let her get started. The former was an informative look at various stories; it also was an opportunity for Ken Hite to convince me that there was not a living human capable of properly finishing THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD, which means that he did his part for Western Civilization this day. If not just the entirety of humanity.
Early night for me, though. I am very tired, and my brain is full.
Define “finish” in this context.
The novel itself is a written first draft, more or less loosely collated by Lovecraft himself and shoved in a desk drawer until after his death. It’s short (51,500 words), and there are elements that need expanding (for example, there’s some intriguing stuff about vampirism that surely Lovecraft would have developed further, if only he had ever gone back to the manuscript). I’d estimate that another twenty thousand words or so would smooth out the rough edges… if you could find somebody mad enough and good enough to try.
There’s the rub I suppose. No one can go that Mad and stay that Good simultaneously. Clearly even Lovecraft failed that balance in the end.
Eh. I take that opinion with a large pinch of Essential Saltes.
Not everything needs to be explained. The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown, after all.
Are there things that could be expanded on? Yes.
Would expanding on them make the story better? I’m going to come down firmly on “Not a flipping chance”.
What the bloody story needs, is editing. You could easily chop a couple thousand words, and improve the story by doing so. (Purple prose is a valid stylistic choice, and the languid pace it enforces is perfect for the story. But when you pile seven or more adverbs into a single sentence, you’re abusing the privilege. Some of this wordsmithing is so over the top it reads more like a parody of Lovecraft, and really should be read aloud for maximum cringe.)