Monday, March 26, 2007
Starting Dark
My writing group read the first two chapters of the novel. None of them write solely crime fiction although several have dabbled in it. They felt the protagonist was so dark in these first two chapters that I had no where to go with her except toward the light. What do you think? Can I sustain this darkness throughout the book when everything is filtered through her eyes? Would she grow tiresome by the end? The book is written in the third person but she is definitely our only POV. I guess I'll post this on crimespace too since that's where the action is lately.
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5 comments:
I think you can definately sustain a dark character through a whole novel. There have been many books with absolutely vile characters that don't ever find the light.
I say try to make it as dark as you want and then you can always go back and lighten it up if you need to.
I agree with Bryon. Lighter characters are for lighter genres. Crime fiction means there have to be one or two shady characters. Don't worry about it.
It may be that I have to keep this to myself till it's finished as far as writing groups. I have more confidence in decisions I make in writing short stories than I do here. Thanks to Maria for this insight.
Also, it is very diffficult to workshop a novel because members aren't able to see the work as a whole, only as a part of something which intentions are unknown to them.
And unfortunately they have seen it as a short story and know the original ending and now find it too ironic and dark for a novel.
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