Start with a bang
I always tell my creative writing students that writing a novel or story falls into two parts. The first half is the creating, where you let your imagination roll and record what it comes up with. The second phase is editing, where you shape and make sense of your initial idea.
Editing Eyemind has reminded me of the importance of starting with a bang. I wrote the first draft of the novel around fifteen years ago. Over the last decade I've edited the script half a dozen times and more recently I've changed the whole emphasis of the story to focus on the crimes within it.
.
Sometimes when we're editing work we know so well we can't pull back sufficiently to see what needs doing, and this was the case with Eyemind. My first chapter has Keri Starseer, my heroine, arriving on-planet and going for a leisurely dinner with her new employer. I did that was because the story is set on Latoya, an invented planet, and I wanted to scene-set before getting into the story.
Wrong! I'm writing a crime/adventure novel, and I need to get into the action much later. So now I'm starting with a grabbing line of dialogue from the briefing after the dinner. This starts the story with a bang, and immediately the reader knows that Keri's pleasant art tourist role is going to be something far more dangerous.
Editing Eyemind has reminded me of the importance of starting with a bang. I wrote the first draft of the novel around fifteen years ago. Over the last decade I've edited the script half a dozen times and more recently I've changed the whole emphasis of the story to focus on the crimes within it.
.
Sometimes when we're editing work we know so well we can't pull back sufficiently to see what needs doing, and this was the case with Eyemind. My first chapter has Keri Starseer, my heroine, arriving on-planet and going for a leisurely dinner with her new employer. I did that was because the story is set on Latoya, an invented planet, and I wanted to scene-set before getting into the story.
Wrong! I'm writing a crime/adventure novel, and I need to get into the action much later. So now I'm starting with a grabbing line of dialogue from the briefing after the dinner. This starts the story with a bang, and immediately the reader knows that Keri's pleasant art tourist role is going to be something far more dangerous.
Comments
Post a Comment