Basically he likes it. Thinks the premise works, the characters work, the atmosphere works.
On the more alarming side, he doesn't see her as being dark, doesn't think she would murder anyone, sees the novel as a self-discovery narrative rather than suspense-- much less noir.
I thought I had long buried that self-discovery crap but here it is raising its ugly head. I don't think I can pitch a book that's not genre. So do I begin to change it now or write till the end and hope it works out. Or write to the end and then change things.
I knew this babe was running off with my book by the third chapter. I knew she wasn't gonna let me take charge. What would you do?
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7 comments:
Keep going. This is the problem with letting anyone read your work until it's finished. Go. Don't make any changes now. Go. And don't give it to anyone else to read.
What do you mean when you use the expression "pitch a book" I thought only television and screenwriters had to do that.
If a character gets uppity, you can either let them or teach them a lesson. I don't know the story, so it's impossible to truly advise. Have you considered shooting her? Just a maiming... That usually quiets people down for a while.
Pitch is the wrong word. But I think I have to make it look like it's worth reading this time. The last one-the novel in stories-seemed too tepid in the synopsis. The most common comment was-it doesn't look exciting enough for me. Not my kind of thing. hsthkhs
Stephen-That's so funny. Sometimes I do feel like that. I think she's ready to take in a cat about now when I really want her to kill one. Comes from spending too long with her. We're getting to be buddies which never happens with the shorts.
Get to the end. It's a lot easier to change something you've got than to change something you don't. Fiddle too much trying to change it before it's done and you'll have one relly bitchin' first chapter. And nothing else.
That said, I started rewrites on mine before I was actually finished with a completed draft. The back end was deviating too much and I realized that instdaed of changing it to suit the beginning, I had to change the beginning to suit the end.
Btu I didn't know that until I had a lot of it done.
The problem is what is the end. It's one thing if she's actually just seeking her true identity; another if she's something else--what I originally saw her as. I am in a quandary. I guess I'll go away for two weeks and think on it.
I agree with Sandra, you gotta stop showing this thing to people. I know it goes against everything you've done before but that's really the only way to make it through a project of this size.
As for what type of story it is, that can be figured out later, but your book doesn't necessarily need to be a suspense novel to be genre. Winters Bone is certainly a novel of self-discovery as are many PI novels.
Let me give you the best piece of advice I ever got on writing a novel:
Just finish the damn thing.
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