Thursday, August 30, 2007

The second wave

I've done a hatchet job on my prologue and first three chapters to try and make the story a bit more immediate. Tomorrow I'll re-work my synopsis and CV and then it'll be time for a new batch to go out - maybe only four or five this time.
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It's the next day and A is "working from home" so I've got some time to sort this all out. He's taking business calls on his mobile whilst pretending NOT to be at the park with the kids.

I just don't know what to do. I re-write and re-write but where do I stop? I can make it different and different again but how do I know what is better than what? And is better really important? For example, I liked how the book began back in April/May, before I got to the end and began the big re-working, but the two people I showed it to said it was too slow and needed more spark to catch the reader's attention, so I speeded things up. I got rid of some of the more lyrical bits and some descriptive passages and added more hints as to the darker things (i.e. sex and violence) that would follow, should the reader persevere. That went down well with my audience but I wasn't happy with it. If Heathcliff had ravaged Cathy within the first three chapters, who would have bothered reading the remainder of Wuthering Heights?
A

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