I’ve been participating in a number of conferences and vendor sales lately, which means I’ve been chatting with a lot of readers and aspiring authors. There are always a few in the latter category who tell me they just can’t finish the book they’re writing. They get midway through, grow bored, and come up with another idea that they like better. Book #1 gets shelved as they start Book #2. Then the same thing happens again. Book #2 joins Book #1 as they start writing Book #3.
And so on, and so on.
My advice to them is always the same. Make a summary of the new idea, file it away, and then finish the book you’re working on. Don’t worry about how badly it sucks. Muscle your way through to The End. You can’t edit a blank page.
I’m here to tell you, I’m breaking my own advice. Sort of.
For well over a year, I’ve been writing (and rewriting and rewriting) what I call my Frankenbook. I keep cutting, rearranging, and pasting, hence the nickname.
I did power my way to The End before going back to page one and revising the first 100 pages. I wasn’t satisfied, but I sent them to my agent for her perspective. I think we all send off our work to our critique groups, beta readers, agents, or editors with crossed fingers, hoping they will assure us our doubts are unfounded.
This is great! You don’t need to fix a thing!
Which never happens. Ever.
It didn’t happen this time either. Instead, she pointed out all the issues I’d already sensed need work and basically told me to fix it.
(I should
mention, this is something I’ve written without a contract, so there isn’t a
publisher waiting for it.)
I gnashed my teeth for a few days, anticipating tearing the Frankenbook apart one more time. I thought about breaking out the index cards, jotting a scene, a plot point on each one, and then tossing them into the air and seeing where they landed. Fifty-two pick-up, novel style.
As much as I encourage aspiring authors to keep going, I decided I need to stop. No, not permanently. But I feel like a mouse in a maze, bumping into walls. No, make that a blind mouse. For now, I can’t see my way out.
However, I have a plan. First, I’m continuing my field recon (thank you, Timons Esaias, for the term) in which I read other books of similar styles and genres to see what works and what doesn’t. I’ve been doing this for over a year, but perhaps I’ve been studying the wrong books. Time to switch up my reading list.
Second, I’m starting to write another book. So far, I have one chapter. The opening scene. The inciting incident. I have an inkling of what happens next, including a jump twenty-six years to the present day. I’m working on a loose outline, hoping that it will become tighter in the next few weeks. My goal is to have fifty to seventy-five pages by the end of November.
With any luck
(and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears on my part), my agent will like this one
better. Maybe then I will have a clearer view of tearing apart and piecing
together the Frankenbook.
Longtime friends
have pointed out to me that I originally wrote Death By Equine in 2004.
After rejection upon rejection, I put it aside to work on the Zoe Chambers
series. When I pulled Equine back out in 2020, the needed fixes were
more obvious to me. When I released it in 2021, it earned rave reviews and won
a major book award.
I still believe aspiring authors should finish that first draft. Typing THE END is empowering and so satisfying. But sometimes it takes a while for the true story to come to light in a way that will keep the reader turning the page.
Fellow Writers Who Kill, do you have any manuscripts filed away that may or may not see the light of day at some point?
Readers, what
style of story opening do you prefer? Fast-paced from page one? Or slower, more
atmospheric, building to the suspenseful climax?
