…your darlings.
Hello again. Happy New Year and immediate apologies for the time lag between posts.
I’m around a quarter of the way through the rewrite of book 1 and have committed a mass execution of ‘darlings’ with over 2,600 words getting the bullet; all of them in chapter 2.
After reviewing the notes from my critique pre-Christmas, I came to the conclusion that almost all of chapter 2 was back story and description. Now some of this helps with the motivations of my main character, but none of it drives the story forward with enough pace to keep a reader hooked. So it had to go. I’ve kept a copy of the first draft though as I think I’ll be able to rehabilitate some of it later on in the story.
In this rewrite I’m also getting to grips with ‘show, don’t tell’ which I’m finding a much harder exercise, hence the slow progress but I’ll persist.
I haven’t made any moves to get a new agent, no queries or sample chapters sent out. I am getting together a list for the future though, looking at writers that I admire and seeing which agency represents them. When this re-write is done, I’ll deal with penning a query letter and make a start on the many rewrites of that.
I did send the first 3,000 words of the rewrite and a brand new synopsis to the CWA for their Debut Dagger Competition, the closing date for which is today. So please keep your fingers crossed that it makes some impact.
Slán for now,
TF.80
Current Reading: The Fry Chronicles – Stephen Fry’s autobiography
Current Listening: The King is Dead – The Decemberists
