Surprised, Pleased and Stunned
Last night was our monthly meeting of Critical Mass. I had hoped to have part of book three in the EDGE series, but I had only written the prologue because I was so busy writing the interstitial material for BUSTED FLUSH. Since I had to submit if I was going to come and play (we have a rule that if you don’t write you may not attend. We do give a one month grace meeting after you’ve submitted. Otherwise we would drowned in pages to read.) Anyway, I digress, I decided to submit the opening two sections of the Wild Cards material.
As I mentioned George had suggested that I write it in first person. I knew I had been having a lot of fun, and it felt pretty good, rather like sliding into a really comfortable pair of old shoes. It’s just felt _right_. It gave me the same feeling of exhilaration that I experience when I write screenplays. But of course I had no idea if it was just an illusion/delusion. Last night answered the question. I got a lot of raves and the strokes felt really good. Daniel Abraham told me I must never, ever write in third person again. He also pointed out that not only am I writing in first person I’m writing in present tense as well and it’s working.
My biggest problem as a writer is that I don’t evoke the senses well enough, and my third person prose seems to be “distancing” for people. All that goes away when I write in first person.
So, now I’m faced with a dilemma. I’m quite happy with EDGE OF REASON, the first book in the series. but the second book, while it has some great moments, and while I like where it takes my protagonist — just didn’t work as well for me. One problem is that I jumped up to five view point characters, and this is a really emotional book for my main character, but it felt somehow flat.
I’ve got this wild notion to rewrite the book in first person. I have time. The first book is coming out in early 2008, and I want this series to be really strong. I sent an email to my editor Patrick Nielson Hayden at Tor asking what he thought of my idea. Also, I haven’t looked at book two since August 2006 when I delivered the book. If I rewrite it might help catapult me into book three. My friend Ian (watch for his novels. He’s really good) suggested that I take a pivotal scene in book two and rewrite it in first person and see how it feels. Very good advice, and I’m going to follow it.
This is one of the hard things to learn when you’re a writer. Sometimes when it’s not working you have to make the agonizing choice. _Throw it all out and start over._ But when it’s right the high is unmatched.
Melinda
May 24th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
My short stories (seldom as I write them) often come in first person present tense. It just feels right.
But for my novels I use third past tense omniscient. I know omni is frowned upon, but it works best for me. It’s strange since I’m not an avid moviegoer, but I see my writing from a camera angle - zoom in, zoom out to get an overview, zoom into a character’s head ….
Maybe I could write screenplays for historical action movies.
May 25th, 2007 at 9:53 am
In fact, it was so good I didn’t recognize it at first — I just read it.
May 25th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
It really was good writing Melinda.
It made me want to bring my first person present tense story to the group, so you can see what it looks like when someone not as good as you does it.
May 27th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Melinda, I haven’t read either of the books yet, but knowing you and the quality of peer crit a writer gets at Critical Mass, I would strongly urge you to do a rewrite ‘tryout’ of a couple of chapters of Book Two and if those fly, then you have to call Patrick and tell him you’re rewriting Book Two.
Let’s face it, you’ve got a strong streak of perfectionism - hell, you perform dressage - and if you don’t at least try the rewrite to see if it works better than the ms. currently does, it will niggle at you until the end of days.
Bruce Springsteen threw out whole albums of music in the 70’s and 80’s before releasing such masterpieces as The River and Born in the USA. It made me crazy, waiting for his next work, but I had to trust his judgement.
You should trust your own.
adorations,
Parris
May 28th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Thanks, Parris, for the encouragement. Sometimes (maybe a lot of the time) being a creator is knowing when to throw something in the garbage and start over again. But damn it’s scary.