Snow, sunshine, lollipops...and revenge
Well, I’m just full of sunshine and lollipops tonight, probably because it’s snowing like the dickens, and I love snow and winter, whereas the rest of my family (and the city and the region) are grousing about Where the hell is spring, already?!! We have at least 2 inches of snow on the ground so far, and the trees are flocked (they’ve limited their branches to friends only…all right, bad pun). If I can get pictures tomorrow morning, I’ll post them.
I’m also in a better mood overall from my last few bitchin posts. Yes, I did end up getting screwed by the scientific manuscript author situation, but I was expecting it, and I’m all Zen with my planned course of action in future, which is for me to no longer bust my ass for that doctor’s projects.
On the bright side, I’ve been a particularly good parent and spouse this weekend, preparing home-cooked meals for my best-beloveds, and spending hours today playing board games with the Sequel, with Tasuki joining in for a few rounds.
I’ve also been lucky enough to spend a recent evening with one of my best pals, “Julene,” and after some good back-and-forth, I realized that I shouldn’t have been so grim about the race wank from earlier this year. Online wank is almost always about people who Bitch Because They Want to Bitch. Real people in the real world would rather work on enjoying each other’s company and building bridges between the races, instead of tearing them down because the bridges aren’t perfect in every last atom.
Now, sweet revenge for Mouse and Kris!
Due to the above “good parenting”, I haven’t been nearly as productive writing-wise as I’ve wanted to be. However, I’ve been reading books and websites about the technicalities of writing, particularly query letters and “hooks” and cover blurbs, and…dum, dum, dum-first pages! The opening is the critical part, because that is what will make or break the novel with agents, publishers, and most importantly, the readers.
Honestly, this is how I decide to buy books. I read the back cover blurb, then the first few paragraphs, subconsciously looking for style and professionalism in the writing, not to mention plot development. Then I crack open the middle of the book to see if the random scene I find makes sense and draws me in as well. Only if all of those elements work do I finally grudgingly shell out the ten bucks or so for a paperback. :P
This has led me to a devastating realization. As much as I have always enjoyed the opening pages to my novel, it’s too. damn. slow. All that business with painting Rowena’s characterization and home setting has GOT TO GO! This somewhat leisurely development may work with my ever-so-patient fanfic readers, but in the real world of book-selling, I have approximately three paragraphs to get from the wolf at the door to the discovery of Tazarin’s body.
This means I have to cut a lot! And yes, Mouse and Kris, I hope you’re grinning with glee as I ruthlessly red-ink some of my favorite parts of the opening chapter. Not to mention, I plan on cutting at least 30% of Chapter Two as well. This is known in the publishing world as “Killing your darlings.” No matter how much you may love the writing in certain passages, if it doesn’t actively move the story forward, you have to kill it. (Or as I do, cut and paste it to a different document, promising yourself that those words will be there if you should ever need them in the far distant future.) I know that you guys already know this; I’ve witnessed Mouse tossing aside an entire subplot of Freddie that she was fond of.
So I reluctantly make semi-drastic changes to the first part of Mute, knowing that Pain is a Good Teacher, as they say. And now to bed, because I’m fighting a cold as it is, and I’ll be fighting snow-snarled traffic in the morning.