Willing Submission to Torture
I spent half a day yesterday and all day today fixing my opening chapter to submit to the Surprisingly Essential First Page contest on Nathan Bransford’s blog.
I started with roughly 1500 words that I knew I had to edit anyway, and have already tackled once as part of my ongoing revisions of the completed MS of The Face of A Lion. I’m trying to keep all sorts of advice in my head and have Jo’s words ringing in my ears (Simple terms (“farmer” not “man from the village”). Exact Terms (“subaltern” not “guy in the army”).), along with some other advice I’ve picked up from the wonderful people at the Books and Writers Forum and links that they’ve posted. I also have my own voice in my head: “this line’s crap, this simile’s crap, this metaphor’s crap – tighten it up!”
It sounds like a lot, but I do actually have enough head space for this and for the teeny weeny voice that goes, “it’s getting better, keep going, this is FUN!”
BUT
I’ve now reached the point where I can’t tell if I’m making it better or just making it shorter. If only Mr. Bransford would extend the deadline, I could put it away for a day and come back to it fresh...
And if I have to do this to all 60,000+ words of the novel, then by the time I’m done it’ll only be about 25,000 words long! A YA novella? Guess I’ll have to write a sequel!
I started with roughly 1500 words that I knew I had to edit anyway, and have already tackled once as part of my ongoing revisions of the completed MS of The Face of A Lion. I’m trying to keep all sorts of advice in my head and have Jo’s words ringing in my ears (Simple terms (“farmer” not “man from the village”). Exact Terms (“subaltern” not “guy in the army”).), along with some other advice I’ve picked up from the wonderful people at the Books and Writers Forum and links that they’ve posted. I also have my own voice in my head: “this line’s crap, this simile’s crap, this metaphor’s crap – tighten it up!”
It sounds like a lot, but I do actually have enough head space for this and for the teeny weeny voice that goes, “it’s getting better, keep going, this is FUN!”
BUT
I’ve now reached the point where I can’t tell if I’m making it better or just making it shorter. If only Mr. Bransford would extend the deadline, I could put it away for a day and come back to it fresh...
And if I have to do this to all 60,000+ words of the novel, then by the time I’m done it’ll only be about 25,000 words long! A YA novella? Guess I’ll have to write a sequel!
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