A couple of days ago, I got some feedback on my completed revision of the first Fools Hollow novel from some friends who are arguably among the best Story Men in the world. It wasnt solicited - it had been sent to a mutual friend - but offered, because they were interested, liked what Id done, and had a rare bit of time to offer the advice. With just a few quick keystrokes, they hit every major question, issue, and story concern I had about the entire book, and in several cases, pointed out that the fixes were already sitting there in the text. There were a couple of other questions not quite so easy to answer, but the gist of it was, if I listened and implemented what they suggested - requiring an edit job, not a rewrite or revision - it would be a better book. And it could be done quickly. Which meant that there was almost NO argument I could make against doing it - and against making my own book better - except one. Among other things, this book had been a huge part of my recent self-introspection and therapy, and was a distillation of things I had been processing, and learning to deal with, and get through and past, and it all involved a lot of deeply personal things that in some cases reached back as far as early childhood. And even just as recently as a few weeks ago, there were parts of the story that were relevant to all of that which I was not even capable of writing six months earlier. So what would happen to all of that? I asked my mentor, who had put me on the path of Signal in so many ways, what I ought to do, since what I wrote was what I needed to write, and now, what Im being advised may make it and all the books to follow better, even though it would largely require adjustment or outright removal of almost all of the stuff I needed to write for ME, which was, I hoped, information and learning I would be able to pass on to others. He asked what I felt I MUST do. And I thought about it, then replied that writing the draft doesnt mean thats the version that needed to be published. Just that it needed to be written. That the things I learned writing it were now within me, and could be drawn out for others benefit whenever it was needed, and didnt have to stay in this particular book. And that now, making the book better is what I must do. And he replied, Bingo. This is kind of a much more personal variation of some advice on the first MythWorld book I got years ago from Scott Card. I sent him my original script, then a revision, which Id done hoping to make the book more appealing to a specific editor. He said to ditch the revision: that the first version, was droll, witty, dark, and funny, and would sell lots of copies. The second version read like I was trying to win an American Literary Award. My voice is my voice, and if you tell the story in your voice, you cant go wrong. With what Im looking at now, there are a lot of things in it important to ME...that can be important to readers, but that isnt necessarily this books purpose. Spending today editing, watching some Superman movies, making better books, and drawing better lines. Hope you are all having an excellent Sunday. - James
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 21:17:37 +0000
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