The Next Work: Part II
After I’ve finished a manuscript, I’ll usually reread it several times, fleshing it out while the story’s still fresh. When I no longer think I’m getting anything meaningful out of it, I print it out and give it to my alpha readers. I’ll then incorporate their feedback and go over and over it again until I’m back at the stage I think I can do no more. Then I’ll sit on it. I’ve sat on ‘Prudence’ for almost five years. That length of time is unusual. Other things have taken up my time. Pride, Just Another Week in Suburbia, and August Falling were all published in the interim, and each…
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Something I consider irreplaceable in any form of writing – and particularly in writing a novel – is getting the first line right. The right first line unlocks everything that’s required for a novel: a way into the story establishing the world and characters finding the road that the story will take. Which is what’s made trying to get started on ‘TFSoLY’ so frustrating. Throughout the week, I sat down and hammered out some openings, but every one felt wrong: one came in at the wrong place, so it felt like I was on some ill-lit side-road to the story; another was summarising too much, which made the first page…