So about
the big read. (See my February 11 blog post about this process.) I’m about two thirds through, and it’s easy to tell my
novel in progress needs a lot of work. In fact, in the words of Anne Lamott in
her wonderful book on writing Bird
by Bird, it’s a "shitty first draft." I just don’t know if I’m clever
enough to give it what it needs to turn it into a "good second draft" and a "terrific
third draft" that she predicts will happen.
Anne Lamott
I’m
finding little problems like lots of typos, inconsistencies, and redundancies –
those I know how to fix. It’s the big problems like creating more interest in
the characters and the story that is the major work. I need to describe the characters better; I need to make the
story more interesting and suspenseful. In truth I need to figure out a way to
make my readers want to turn the page.
This
morning I read a LinkedIn conversation about whether to include prologues or
not – lots of pros and cons on the subject. So I need to revisit leaving mine
in or weaving it into the chapters as backstory. And then my major decision
before I move on with any revisions at all is whether to change the narrative
from third person to first. So my first step is to rewrite a scene or two to see
if I can pull that off as well.
Another
thing I came upon this morning is this wonderful quote by William Faulkner:
"Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do
anything really good."
William Faulkner
So even
though I’ve been thinking in the back of my head about abandoning this project,
I’m going to keep on for the time being. Faulkner has given me the push I need.
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